School Choice in Italy between Family Preferences and School Characteristics

This paper investigates the matching process between pupils and schools for lower secondary schools in Italy by taking into account the characteristics of both families and schools, and the way they interact in school choices. It uses a brand new and unique database, including individual-level, geo-referenced data for students’ residence and school location, as well as information concerning the characteristics of both parents and schools. First, we ask which is the impact of home-school distance in school choice. Second, we investigates the role of family background in terms of social class and education. Third, we test whether school characteristics in terms of inputs (composition) and outputs (performance) play a role in shaping family preferences. Our findings highlight the several factors influencing lower secondary school choice in Italy, pointing especially at the role of home-school distance and family background (social class and parental education). Finally, school’s characteristics appear to affect significantly only the choices adopted by middle and upper classes.