This paper uses data on Ohio school districts to estimate the short and long term impact of different types of school expenditures on student outcomes. Our identification strategy employs a dynamic regression discontinuity design that relies upon the exogenous variation in public school funding created by marginally approved or failed local referenda to fund Ohio schools. We find that additional school expenditures on operating, minor capital, and major capital expenditure categories do not have a statistically significant effect on the student test scores of the average public school. Importantly, however, operating expenditures have a large and statistically significant impact on student performance in higher poverty school districts. We also examine possible channels (e.g., class size, attendance, discipline, and teachers’ compensation) through which each type of expenditure may affect outcomes, and we find that teachers’ compensation is the only channel that is affected by additional operating and minor capital expenditures.

本文使用俄亥俄州学区的数据来估计不同类型的学校支出对学生成绩的短期和长期影响。我们的识别策略采用动态回归不连续性设计，该设计依赖于由边际批准或失败的地方公投为俄亥俄州学校提供资金而产生的公立学校资金的外部变化。我们发现，在运营、次要资本和主要资本支出类别上的额外学校支出对普通公立学校的学生考试成绩没有统计学意义的显着影响。然而，重要的是，运营支出对贫困学区的学生表现具有巨大且具有统计意义的影响。我们还检查可能的渠道（例如，班级规模、出勤率、纪律、