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(1) We scale the neighboring school capacity using the distance in
kilometers between the centroid of the observation and the actual
address of the neighboring school.
Antonio Bento is Associate Professor in the Department of Applied
Economics and Management, Cornell University, Charles Towe is Ph.D.
Candidate in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics,
University of Maryland and Jacqueline Geoghegan is Associate Professor
in the Department of Economics, Clark University.
This article was presented in a principal paper session at the AAEA
annual meeting (Portland, OR, July 2007). The articles in these sessions
are not subjected to the journal's standard refereeing process.
Table 1. Variable Definitions
Variable Short Description
Acres Acreage of census block/elementary
school district
distBA Distance to Baltimore in km
distDC Distance to DC in km
pctSchFull Percentage of school capacity
filled--100
pctSchFullNeigh Percentage of nearest neighbor's
school capacity filled--100
(normalized by distance to the
nearest school)
pctEntrantsYr Percentage of new enrollees in
elementary school
pctWithDrawYr Percentage of graduates from
elementary school
existingHomePr Median sales price of existing
homes/1000
newHomePremium Percentage premium for new home
nonWhite Percentage non white
ageLessThan5 Percentage of population less than
5 years of age
highIncome Percentage of household incomes
> 100k
collegeEduc Percentage college educated
expHouse Percentage of housing stock
valued >300k
potentialSubdivUnits Number of potential lots from
undeveloped land based on
zoning regulations
recentSubdivRate Percentage of potential lots
subdivided in the previous 3 years
pctOfSubdivBlt Percentage of subdivided lots which
became sold homes in the last year
Table 2. Summary Statistics (Before Matching and After Matching)
Full Sample Treated
Mean Std Dev. Mean Std Dev.
acres 651.472 1205.021 359.713 289.913
distBA 23.875 5.772 23.985 4.406
distDC 38.459 5.162 35.666 7.018
pctSchFull 12.386 25.315 22.771 17.379
pctSchFullNeigh 6.83 12.201 10.642 10.084
pctEntrantsYr 8.053 3.652 8.029 3.149
pctWithDrawYr 6.778 3.811 8.048 3.351
existingHomcPr 276.495 373.588 260.463 371.031
newHomePremium 19.979 46.612 19.520 61.986
nonWhite 19.844 11.826 18.894 8.573
ageLessThan5 9.055 2.375 10.134 2.553
highlncome 22.651 13.782 18.281 12.647
collegeEduc 72.735 14.638 70.823 13.847
expHouse 14.212 18.303 10.413 14.329
potentialSubdivUnits 321.960 432.378 356.261 400.237
recentSubdivRate 4.589 10.143 5.995 14.119
pctOfSubdivBlt 56.228 298.391 11.512 32.370
No. of observations 198 42
Untreated Matched Treated
Mean Std Dev. Mean Std Dev.
acres 739.767 1354.845 351.352 313.411
distBA 23.841 6.077 22.878 4.527
distDC 39.304 4.122 37.681 7.188
pctSchFull 9.243 26.519 24.775 17.315
pctSchFullNeigh 5.677 12.576 10.904 9.835
pctEntrantsYr 8.059 3.800 7.455 3.006
pctWithDrawYr 6.394 3.869 6.894 2.818
existingHomcPr 281.347 375.443 296.882 448.050
newHomePremium 20.118 41.102 26.551 74.454
nonWhite 20.104 12.660 19.161 9.583
ageLessThan5 8.728 2.226 9.525 2.645
highlncome 23.974 13.876 20.278 12.58
collegeEduc 73.313 14.864 72.480 13.003
expHouse 15.362 19.239 10.323 12.522
potentialSubdivUnits 311.579 442.377 284.581 303.809
recentSubdivRate 4.164 8.604 5.320 14.904
pctOfSubdivBlt 69.760 339.198 12.858 36.639
No. of observations 156 31
Matched Untreated
Mean Std Dev.
acres 360.597 366.092
distBA 22.549 3.533
distDC 38.561 4.057
pctSchFull 27.728 13.567
pctSchFullNeigh 8.271 15.476
pctEntrantsYr 7.629 3.423
pctWithDrawYr 6.871 3.628
existingHomcPr 310.585 487.726
newHomePremium 30.087 58.957
nonWhite 18.898 8.207
ageLessThan5 9.508 2.157
highlncome 211.201 11.898
collegeEduc 73.371 14.335
expHouse 10.444 13.330
potentialSubdivUnits 318.179 298.354
recentSubdivRate 5.171 9.968
pctOfSubdivBlt 8.647 71.784
No. of observations 31
Table 3. Propensity Score Matching Results
On Support Off Support
Outcome-Number of Houses
Built 1994
# Control 152 0
# Treated 31 11
Outcome-Number of Houses
Built 1995
# Control 152 0
# Treated 31 11
Outcome-Number of Houses
Built 1996
# Control 152 0
# Treated 31 11
Outcome-Number of Houses
Built 1997
# Control 152 0
# Treated 31 13
Differences in Outcome Means
Unmatched Epan kernel
Outcome-Number of Houses
Built 1994
# Control 11.95 7.74
# Treated 6.23 2.74
Outcome-Number of Houses [[DELTA].sub. -500 *
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