En esta oportunidad nos visitan los doctores Eugenio Giolito y Ramiro De Elejalde, profesores de la Universidad Alberto Hurtado de Chile, quienes expondrán su paper:

“Starting off on the right foot: Impact of better elementa ry school"

Comenzando con el pie derecho: el impacto de empezar la primaria en una mejor escuela

Luego ofrecerán una charla informativo sobre la Maestría en Economía en LADES, especialmente dirigida a alumnos interesados en cursarla.

Resumen del trabajo

Using several data sources from Chile, we study the impact of starting in a better elementary school on several short and long run outcomes. The endogeneity of school choice is addressed by the use of a quasi experimental variation that comes from differences in the available school set in a context of a fuzzy RD-design. First, we show that the set of available schools induces a relevant shift in the opportunity to start in a better school measured by non high stake examination. Using this quasi-experimental variation, our results reveal an important reduction in the likelihood of dropping out, an increase in the probability that a child would follow an academic track and a reduction in the probability that a student switches schools over her/his school life. Secondly, we observe that families of students who were enrolled in a better school, are more likely to report the ownership of a computer and access to internet. Thirdly, for a complete sample of parents, we not only find an increase in their expectations that a child will complete academic track in high school, but also they are more likely to report that their children will complete post secondary education. Fourthly, for a subsample of students who completed high school, we observe an increase in the score in a high stake examination required for college application, and we show that students are more likely to be enrolled in career/college that is her/his first choice. For all these outcomes, we show that the impact is larger among students whose parents have lower levels of education. Finally, we show that the definition of a better school is correlated with a higher fraction of teacher with college degree, smaller class size, and higher years of education among the classmates’ parents.