How Much Is a Good School Worth in Beijing? Identifying Price Premium with Paired Resale and Rental Data

A neighborhood school policy is implemented in Beijing, where public education dominates. But only home owners, rather than renters are entitled to enroll in a local public school, even when both live in a school’s attendance zone. We estimate the implicit price of school quality in Beijing’s housing market by comparing within- and out-of-zone home values in adjacent buildings. Enabled by the “renter discrimination policy,” this study further controls for the difference in unobserved neighborhood traits using the rental differentials between paired observations. School quality has been capitalized in home values in Beijing. A within-zone housing unit is sold RMB 2,266 yuan per square meter more than if it were outside the attendance zone of a Key Primary School.