JUE Insight: The impact of the school admission restriction policy on the housing market in Shanghai

This study explores the influence of a regulation of informal school choice on the housing market in Shanghai to estimate the significance of loopholes in the school district system. The policy limited the priority for enrollment in a public elementary schools given to house owners in the school's district so that each housing property is given only one priority every five years; hence, informal acquisition of priorities through frequent resale of houses is limited. From the dataset of individual housing prices in Shanghai, we show that house price within the school districts of good schools increases after the policy. In contrast, house price decreases in areas that are neighboring the school but outside its school district because they are called “babysitting communities” and provide houses to live in for households who resell their houses earlier than graduation of their children. We also implement event study analysis to estimate time-varying influences of the policy, to show that the significant price increase occurs immediately after the policy implementation and shrinks a little in the short run.