Community choice and local public services: A discrete choice approach

Abstract

This paper uses a discrete choice approach to estimate the impact of local fiscal and other variables on individual community choices. It employs a combination of a unique micro data set composed of 90% of all homeowners in six school districts in Camden County, New Jersey and information on local community characteristics including local crime rates, commercial activity and distance from a metropolitan area. The empirical model implies that all these variables as well as the local per pupil spending on public education and `community entry prices' play a major part in explaining the location of individual households.