The return to private education: evidence from school-to-work transitions
The-return.pdf (1.405Mb)Abstract
This paper investigates the labor market returns to high school types. We exploit
comprehensive administrative data describing the school-to-work transition for the
universe of Chilean students attending tenth grade in 2001. We discuss the role of
self-selection into school types, pre-labor market abilities, firm characteristics, and
present bounds for the parameters of interest. Attending private high schools has
long-lasting effects on earnings. Moreover, the long-term returns to school-level valueadded measures and monetary investments in education are larger among private-school
students. Our findings provide new insights into the association of school choice and
the inertia of income inequality.
Patrocinador
Dante Contreras, University of Chile; email, dcontrer@econ.uchile.cl. Jorge Rodr´ıguez, Universidad de
los Andes, Chile; email, jp.rodriguez.osorio@gmail.com; Sergio Urz´ua, Department of Economics, University
of Maryland; email, urzua@econ.umd.edu. An earlier version of this paper circulated under the title “On the
Origins of Inequality in Chile.” We are thankful to the seminar participants at LACEA 2013 Meeting, UNUWider 2014 Conference, University of Chicago, University of Stockholm, University of Chile, and Pontificia
Universidad Cat´olica de Chile. We benefited from comments and suggestions from Derek Neal, Magne
Mogstad, Tom´as Rau, Loreto Reyes, and Cristi´an Dagnino. Dante Contreras thanks the support of Centro
de Microdatos at the University of Chile through the Millennium Science Initiative sponsored by the Chilean
Ministry of Economics, Development and Tourism, Project NS100041. Contreras also thanks financing
provided by the Center for Social Conflict and Cohesion Studies (CONICYT/FONDAP/15130009). Jorge
Rodr´ıguez and Sergio Urz´ua thank the Ministry of Finance of Chile for providing access to administrative
data during 2013. This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health under award number
NICHD R01HD065436. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily
represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.
Identifier
URI: https://repositorio.uchile.cl/handle/2250/168408
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Serie Documentos de Trabajo No. 479, pp. 1 - 67, Enero, 2019
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