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School inspectorate reports provide transparency in the market for schools. It allows consumers (parents and pupils) to (re)consider school choice more objectively. To obtain causal evidence, we exploit the fact that school inspectorates select schools randomly – enforced by law - for a detailed assessment of school quality. Unfavorable reports induce reputation effects, which might trigger a lower demand for the school. This paper contributes to the growing literature on school information and parental choice by exploiting information shocks in primary schools in an educational context without standardized central examinations and with school inspection reports as the sole source of objective school quality information parents can rely on. Our findings indicate that parental demand for schools is strongly affected by shocks in transparency, following the publication of, especially positive, school inspection reports. These responses vary with the school's location and socio-economic composition.
