Abstract for:Leveraging Quasi-Experimental Methods to Estimate Model Structure: Understanding School Funding Changes in Response to Court Orders

We discuss an approach to using the event study, a common experimental design in the social sciences, to parameterize delays and develop other insights into system structure. We show a step by step process for undertaking a delay event study, discuss some of the conceptual reasons why this provides information about the delay, and undertake the process for a typical example.  We find evidence that school funding changes following court orders do not adjust quickly, but instead follow a likely higher order process. Our tests also suggest that school district budget makers appear to forecast revenue pessimistically, contributing an additional source of delay to the system.