How Much Do Public Schools Really Cost? Estimating the Relationship Between House Prices and School Quality

This paper investigates the relationship between housing prices and the quality of public schools in the Australian Capital Territory. To disentangle the effects of schools and other neighbourhood characteristics on the value of residential properties, we compare sale prices of homes on either side of high school attendance boundaries. We find that a 5 percent increase in test scores (approximately one standard deviation) is associated with a 3.5 percent increase in house prices. Our result is in line with private school tuition costs, and accords with prior research from Britain and the United States. Estimating the effect of school quality on house prices provides a possible measure of the extent to which parents value better educational outcomes.本研究探讨澳大利亚首都领地（Australian Capital Territory）内住宅房价与公立学校办学质量之间的关联。为厘清学校与其他邻里特征对住宅物业价值的影响，本研究对比了高中入学学区边界两侧住宅的成交价格。研究发现，学校考试成绩每提升5%（约对应一个标准差的增幅），住宅房价便会上涨3.5%。该结果与私立学校学费水平相契合，同时也与英国、美国既往相关研究结论一致。通过估算学校办学质量对房价的影响，可为衡量家长对优质教育成果的重视程度提供可行路径。