Volume 3, Number 4 (Fall) 1968
Cohn, Elchanan. 1968. "Economies of Scale in Iowa High School Operations." Journal of Human Resources 3(4):422-434.
This study attempts to shed some light on the cost and output functions of the Iowa public school system (as of 1962-63). As a proxy for high school quality, incremental test scores on the Iowa Tests of Educational Development (ITED) are used. The estimated per pupil cost functions suggest the existence of significant economies of scale for the Iowa sample of 377 high school districts. When a parabolic cost function is utilized, an optimal high school size (in terms of the number of pupils in average daily attendance) can be estimated. Confidence limits for such an optimum are also calculated.
The author is Assistant Professor of Economics at Pennsylvania State University. Formerly, he was in the Department of Economics, Iowa State University. I am indebted, first and foremost, to Dr. Robert W. Thomas who has introduced me to this subject matter and who has provided the basic data in this study. I have also greatly benefited from comments made by Professors Karl A. Fox and Wayne A. Fuller of Iowa State University.
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