Spending for Local Public Education: Income Distribution and the Aggregation of Private Demands

Abstract

Earlier studies of the determination of local public school spending have Abstract conveniently assumed that the typical family's demand is monotonic in income. They have assumed that the voter with the median income is decisive and that community decisrons. therefore, truly represent the preferences of the median-income voter. We present evidence that this assumption is not always tenable and that it can lead to biases in estimation. Our model and evidence suggest that desired local spending is a U-shaped function of income over the observed income range and that it may eventually turn down at very high family incomes.