Value of Bilingual Education: Effect of Bilingual School Designation on Housing Price

Abstract

We examine the impact of bilingual school designation on the house price by analysing a natural experiment of school conversion from a monolingual school to a bilingual school in Melbourne. We find that the house price within the pertinent school catchment area responds positively by 8.4%-9.1%. Moreover, we find no significant response in the unit market where residents are less likely to have school-aged children. Analysis with substituted control group with extended surrounding areas, other bilingual school catchment areas, and school catchment areas of public schools with similar academic performance confirms that the significant change in house price is resulted from the bilingual school designation.