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Browsing by Author "Buerger, Christian"
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Item The Effect of Charter Schools on Districts’ Student Composition, Costs, and Efficiency: The Case of New York State(Elsevier, 2019) Buerger, Christian; Bifulco, Robert; School of Public and Environmental AffairsCharter schools can influence a school district's costs by reducing economies of scale and by changing the share of high cost students a district serves, but might also increase the district's efficiency through competition. Utilizing data for New York State school districts from 1998/99 to 2013/14, we estimate difference-in-differences models to assess the effect of charter schools on enrollment and student composition. Then, we estimate an expenditure function, using data prior to the charter school program, to measure the costs associated with reaching a given performance standard for students in various need categories and different enrollments. Next, using the entire data set, we run a second expenditure function to determine changes in efficiency associated with charter school entry. We find that charter schools increase the cost of providing education, and that these cost increases are larger than short-run efficiency gains, but are offset by efficiency gains in the long term.Item The effect of economic downturns on state budgets: a counterfactual analysis of the great recession(Taylor & Francis, 2021) Buerger, Christian; School of Public and Environmental AffairsI propose a novel method to estimate the effect of recessions on government finances. Using the Great Recession and state budgets as an empirical example, I find large and prolonged budget cuts, but also increases in transfers to populations in need. The proposed method can be easily transferred to other recessions, different spending categories, and local governments receiving state transfers, such as school districts.Item Extending differences-in-differences frameworks to Granger equations: Evidence from cutback management during three recessions(Emerald, 2021-10) Buerger, Christian; Sandel, Riley M.; Reitano, Vincent; Lofton, Michelle L.; Jones, Peter; School of Public and Environmental AffairsPurpose The authors show how to extend difference-in-differences (DiD) frameworks to Granger (1969) equations, a technique that tests for the parallel trends assumption and measures changes in effect sizes over time. To illustrate how these equations work, they apply them to state cutback management decisions in three recessions. Design/methodology/approach This study applies quantitative methods. The authors estimate DiD frameworks as Granger (1969) equations. Findings After empirically analyzing recessions that started in 1990, 2001 and 2007, the authors find that states deepen expenditure cuts when economic declines lengthen and tend to make large cuts to specific expenditure categories instead of spreading cuts equally over all service areas. Originality/value The authors offer two contributions of methodological value. First, they introduce the estimation of Granger equations to the study of topics in public administration. Second, they show how this technique helps to evaluate the impact of economic declines on state spending. By instituting these contributions, they offer a unique way of analyzing cutback management decisions.Item Fiscal Shocks, Budgetary Pressures, and Public Education Expenditure Stabilization(Taylor & Francis, 2022) Jones, Peter A.; Reitano, Vincent; Buerger, Christian; School of Public and Environmental AffairsFiscal shocks exert budgetary pressures on school districts and constrain their ability to provide public education. An emerging literature examines the role of fiscal reserves to mitigate expenditure cuts in school districts. In the U.S. context, this article provides evidence that Kentucky school districts from school years 2001–2002 to 2013–2014 drained fiscal reserves and cut expenditures in response to revenue decreases. Further, school districts drained fiscal reserves to stabilize non-instructional expenditures, which have fixed costs. Collectively, the findings presented in this article build evidence that school districts strategically respond to budgetary pressures.Item The Impact of Government Contracting Out on Spending: The Case of Public Education in New Orleans(Sage, 2021-02) Buerger, Christian; Harris, Douglas N.; School of Public and Environmental AffairsIn this study, we start with developing a theoretical framework incorporating theories from the contracting literature and adapt them to the unusual case of nonprofit charter schools, which yields several seemingly novel theoretical insights. In contrast to earlier studies, we use a quasi-experimental research design, the synthetic control group approach, to test the impact of contracting on spending for public schooling in New Orleans. Using detailed information on spending, our empirical analysis shows that contracting increases total operating spending. The additional funds were used to increase administrative spending, including both the number and salaries of administrators. Fewer resources were devoted to instruction. Although the number of teachers was largely unchanged, per-teacher salaries and benefits dropped. We utilize the results to complement the theory of contracting with regard to outsourcing based on funding formulas and the mix of inputs chosen by contractors.Item The Influence of Finance Policies on Charter School Supply Decisions in Five States(Wiley, 2020) Buerger, Christian; School of Public and Environmental AffairsThis paper tests if charter school finance policies influence charter school location. I create a theoretical framework describing the location incentives created by charter school finance provisions and test their relevance empirically by applying a two-step approach consisting of negative binomial models and Wald tests. Using data from New York, North Carolina, Florida, Michigan, and Ohio, I provide evidence that states’ finance provisions are an important policy lever impacting charter school location. Several robustness checks corroborate the initial results.Item State Fiscal Reserves and the Great Recession(Taylor & Francis, 2022-03-16) Buerger, Christian; Reitano, Vincent; School of Public and Environmental AffairsGovernments around the world accumulate fiscal reserves to prepare for exogenous shocks such as recessions. Using data from 2004 to 2016 for state governments in the United States, we estimate empirical models controlling for time-variant and -invariant state characteristics. Our results show that savings increase at the expense of spending in specific categories and that fiscal reserves also support only certain expenditure functions. Further, we find that the relationship between savings and spending differs over the business cycle as fiscal reserves increase during times of economic prosperity and decrease during economic declines.Item Test-Based Accountability and the Effectiveness of School Finance Reforms(American Economic Association, 2021-05) Buerger, Christian; Lee, Seung Hyeong; Singleton, John D.; School of Public and Environmental AffairsA recent literature provides new evidence that school resources are important for student outcomes. This paper examines whether school accountability systems that incentivize performance (such as No Child Left Behind) raise the efficiency with which additional resources get spent. We leverage the timing of school finance reforms to compare funding impacts on student test scores between states that had accountability in place at the time of the reform and states that did not. The results show that finance-reform-induced increases in student performance are driven by those states where the reform was accompanied by the presence of test-based accountability.