Quasi-markets and other choice-based mechanisms are now established methods of delivery of public services. An understanding of what different groups of users choose and how they make their choices is central to explaining the outcomes of choice-based mechanisms and, therefore, to understanding how policy change may affect such outcomes. In this paper we investigate alternative theories of education decision-making that focus on potential differences across social class in the context of school choice. For the first time in this context, we compare both economic and sociological rational choice theories with cultural reproduction theory. While strong distinctions between these approaches – both across disciplinary boundaries and across the different sociological traditions – are generally perceived in the literature, our analysis suggests that there are actually more commonalities between the alternative approaches than may previously have been acknowledged. Moreover, we show that, while they all support the same observed outcome – that working class children, on average, go to ‘less good’ schools – the different theoretical explanations underlying that outcome have quite different implications for policy.
