Information shocks and parental response in education. A case study of an open government initiative |
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| Institution: | 1. Leuven Economics of Education Research, KU Leuven, Naamsestraat 69, 3000 Leuven, Belgium;2. UNU-MERIT, Maastricht University, Boschstraat 24, 6211 AX, Maastricht, the Netherlands;1. Harokopio University of Athens, Greece;2. National Centre of Public Administration and Local Government, Athens, Greece;1. University of the Aegean, Greece;2. Hellenic Ministry of Digital Governance & National Centre of Public Administration & Local Government, University of Aegean, Greece;3. University of the Aegean, Samos, Greece;1. DISI, University of Bologna, Italy;2. CIRSFID-AI, University of Bologna, Italy;1. Department for E-Governance and Administration, University for Continuing Education Krems, Dr.-Karl-Dorrek-Strasse 30, 3500 Krems a. d. Donau, Austria;2. University of the Aegean, 81100 Samos, Greece;3. INTRASOFT International S.A., Peania Attikis, Greece;4. University for Continuing Education Krems, 3500 Krems a. d. Donau, Austria;1. Department of Human and Social Sciences, University of Naples L''Orientale, Italy;2. Department of Economics, University of Rome Roma Tre, Italy;3. Interuniversity Department of Regional and Urban Studies and Planning, University of Turin, Italy;4. Department of law, economics, politics and modern languages, Libera Università degli Studi Maria Ss. Assunta di Roma, Italy;5. Department of Politics, Birkbeck College, University of London, UK |
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| Abstract: | Although a large body of literature has examined the effects of open government from a theoretical perspective, evidence on the empirical effects is still limited. This paper analyses parental response to an open government initiative consisting of the publication on a government website of school inspection reports. As an indicator of school quality, school inspection reports allow parents to make well informed school choices for their children. We employ a unique natural experiment in Belgium where schools are randomly selected for inspection, and online school inspection reports are the first and only source of objective quality data publicly available. This results in exogenous information shocks. Our findings indicate that information about school quality strongly affects school choice. After the publication, inspected schools experience higher enrolments, with effects driven by positively evaluated schools and rural schools. No differentiated response is observed by schools' socioeconomic composition. We interpret these findings as evidence that parents made extensive use of the government website on which school inspection reports were published. |
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