The revealed preferences of a local government: Black/white disparities in scholastic achievement

Many studies of the educational sector implicitly assume schools attempt only to maximize student cognitive achievement subject to a budget constraint. The validity of this assumption is tested in this paper. In specific, the preferences of a representative bureaucrat in an urban school system are estimated. The results indicate he does not simply maximize achievement. The representative bureaucrat also has preferences with respect to the distribution of inputs and outputs between black and white children.