Estimating the Impact on Educational Demand of Divesting in a Private School Voucher Policy: A Study of an Italian Region

ABSTRACT

Voucher policies represent a market mechanism to support school choice, with the expected effect of stimulating competition among schools and, in turn, positively benefiting the educational outcomes. As the only Italian region adopting this policy to free private/public school choice, Lombardy is the subject of this study. In particular, we aim at understanding whether the voucher policy still affects private school enrollments, considering its de-financing in 2016. Findings show that this reduction did not impact private enrollments. Reasons could be probably found in the well-rooted motivations behind private school choice and in the low amount of the voucher, which does not cover the full private school enrollment.

KEYWORDS:

• School choice
• private school
• voucher policy
• policy evaluation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Recognized pursuant to law 62 of 10 March 2000.

2. Decree law 250 of December 5, 2005, converted into law 27 of February 3, 2006.

3. Decree of the President of the Republic 389 of 18 April 1994.

4. Circular no. 7740 of March 28, 2022 (https://www.miur.gov.it/-/circolare-n-7740-del-28-marzo-2022).

5. Excluding imputed rent. Data for the year 2020.

6. Data retrieved from dati.istat.it: “Condizioni economiche delle famiglie e disuguaglianze” > “Reddito familiare” > “Reddito netto” > “Tipologia familiare”.

7. Retrieved from dati.istat.it: “Condizioni economiche delle famiglie e disuguaglianze” > “Reddito familiare” > “Reddito netto” > “Regioni e tipo di comune”.

8. Data are referred to the public announcements published into the Lombardy region website from 2015 to 2019 about the resolution of the regional board about how to allocate financial resources. These financial resources are allocated to policy “Dote Scuola” – “Buono Scuola”.

9. Retrieved from dati.istat.it: “Popolazione e famiglie” > “Popolazione intercensuaria” > “Popolazione residente ricostruita” – “Anni 2002–2019” > “Italia, regioni e province”.

10. The reference year considered in subsequent analysis is 2017, one year after the funding decreasing, because authors expect a time-lag in changing educational demand of private schooling. However, the same analysis are run considering 2016 as reference finding same results.