Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/184788 
Year of Publication: 
2017
Series/Report no.: 
Working Paper No. 837
Publisher: 
Queen Mary University of London, School of Economics and Finance, London
Abstract: 
We show that grading standards for primary school exams in England have triggered an inflation of quality indicators in the national performance tables for almost two decades. The cumulative effects have resulted in significant differences in the quality signaled to parents for otherwise identical schools. These differences are as good as random, with score manipulation resulting from discretion in the grading of randonly assigned external markers. We find large housing price gains from the school quality improvements artificially signaled by manipulation as well as lower deprivation and more businesses catering to families in local neighbourhoods. The design ensures improved external validity for the valuation of school quality with respect to boundary discontinuities and has the potential for replication outside of our specific case study.
Subjects: 
House prices
School quality
Score inflation
JEL: 
C26
C31
I2
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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