Evaluating a voucher system in Chile. Individual, family and school characteristics
Author
dc.contributor.author
Contreras Guajardo, Dante
Admission date
dc.date.accessioned
2017-07-25T15:23:39Z
Available date
dc.date.available
2017-07-25T15:23:39Z
Publication date
dc.date.issued
2001
Cita de ítem
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Serie Documentos de Trabajo No. 175 Agosto, 2001
es_ES
Identifier
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https://repositorio.uchile.cl/handle/2250/144786
Abstract
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Private provision of education is a topic which has received a great deal of discussion
around the world in recent years. Free choice of schools and a voucher system providing
public funding to both private and public schools are in place in Chile and have been
operating for twenty years. This article provides evidence on the educational determinants
of access to higher education and social mobility. The study uses the Academic Aptitude
Test (PAA) database, 1998. The PAA is an instrument designed to evaluate the abilities and
knowledge of those students who have completed secondary education. This information is
used to estimate educational production functions. Three categories of variables (inputs) are
hypothesized as explaining educational achievement: individual, family, and school
characteristics. The voucher system is “evaluated” by comparing the impact of different
school types (privately paid, private subsidized (voucher), and public schools) on academic
performance.
The voucher system assumes the competition generated among schools will improve the
quality of education. Evidence obtained by using OLS estimates indicates that attending a
private subsidized school does increase standardized test scores, but the impact is relatively
small. The voucher schools perform more akin to public than private schools. However,
when TSLS models are estimated in order to control for school choice, the impact of
attending a private subsidized school increases significantly. At the same time the impact of
the parent’s education is reduced significantly. Therefore, parental characteristics operate in
the selection of school type, and as such their impact has been overestimated with respect to
the OLS model. Therefore, the Chilean voucher system succeeds as an instrument that
provides social mobility. Policy makers should support a voucher system and increase its
availability. Another relevant finding is that while female students are more likely to obtain
better grades than their male counterparts during high school, their PAA test scores are
significantly lower.
es_ES
Lenguage
dc.language.iso
en
es_ES
Publisher
dc.publisher
Universidad de Chile, Facultad de Economía y Negocios