Public education provision, private schooling and income redistribution

Availability of free public education induces a transfer in kind among householdswith school age children. We provide evidence of the redistributive character of public education provision. We estimate structural quantile treatment effects of household income onthe distribution of expected educational transfers in kind. Under the assumption that education quality is a normal good, better services (ancillary to the core education mission)supplied by private schools increase quality therein and reduce the incentives for wealthyhouseholds to enroll in public education. Because of these incentives, rich families benefit less from educational transfers in kind and the public education system is redistributive. Using household survey data from Italy, we find that an increase in net income reduces thevalue of the expected educational in kind transfers for compulsory education.