Educational Vouchers When There are Peer Group Effects - Size Matters

Abstract

In this article, I study the effects various educational voucher policies have on the sorting of children across schools and the per-student expenditure levels at these schools, when a child's peer group matters and students differ over income and ability. I find that, depending on the magnitude of the voucher, switching from a public system to a voucher system could entail either welfare gains or losses. All voucher policies under consideration lead to greater inequality than the public system; however, these increases are not monotone in the voucher size.