TY - JOUR
T1 - Equal Access to University Education in Chile? An Application Using Spatial Heckman Probit Models
AU - Quiroz, Juan Luis
AU - Peeters, Ludo
AU - Chasco, Coro
AU - Aroca, Patricio
N1 - Funding Information:
Funding: This research was funded by the FONDECYT Project, grant number 1171230, the COES– FONDAP Project, grant number 15130009, and by the eS-MiData Project, grant number 447379001.
Funding Information:
This research was funded by the FONDECYT Project, grant number 1171230, the COES– FONDAP Project, grant number 15130009, and by the eS-MiData Project, grant number 447379001. We are grateful to the participants at the 9th Seminar of Spatial Econometric Jean Paelinck|6–7 October 2017, Cartagena, Spain and at the 2021 RSAI World Conference|25–28 May 2021, Virtual Conference for their valuable comments on several versions of this paper. We also acknowledge Andrés Vallone’s contribution of the postal address geocoding process and Carmen Pérez Esparrells, Mónica Navarrete, and Dusan Paredes for their invaluable comments during Juan Luis Quiroz’s dissertation defense.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2022/1/1
Y1 - 2022/1/1
N2 - This study contributes to the debate on accessibility of higher education in Chile, with a special focus on the geospatial dimension of access to university studies. This paper addresses the central question of whether geography (physical distance and neighborhood effects) plays a significant role in determining the accessibility of higher education to students in Chile. We use Heckman probit-type (Heckit) models to adjust for selection during application for higher education— that is, pre-selection among applications to study at university and, ultimately, admission (or denial) to a higher educational institution. Of all high school graduates who took the university selection test (PSU), only 37.9% were able to attend higher education. The results show that the geospatial elements—neighborhood characteristics and distance from the city of Santiago—have a significant local effect on the student’s application and access to Chilean universities. Specifically, the most significant local range for each candidate is 300 neighbors. We also find that, when distance to the capital city increases, the probability of applying to university increases to a threshold of 1400 km, at which point probability begins to decrease.
AB - This study contributes to the debate on accessibility of higher education in Chile, with a special focus on the geospatial dimension of access to university studies. This paper addresses the central question of whether geography (physical distance and neighborhood effects) plays a significant role in determining the accessibility of higher education to students in Chile. We use Heckman probit-type (Heckit) models to adjust for selection during application for higher education— that is, pre-selection among applications to study at university and, ultimately, admission (or denial) to a higher educational institution. Of all high school graduates who took the university selection test (PSU), only 37.9% were able to attend higher education. The results show that the geospatial elements—neighborhood characteristics and distance from the city of Santiago—have a significant local effect on the student’s application and access to Chilean universities. Specifically, the most significant local range for each candidate is 300 neighbors. We also find that, when distance to the capital city increases, the probability of applying to university increases to a threshold of 1400 km, at which point probability begins to decrease.
KW - Chile
KW - Education accessibility
KW - Heckit models
KW - Local spatial externalities
KW - SLX model
KW - Spatial effects
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85122995493&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/math10020280
DO - 10.3390/math10020280
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85122995493
SN - 2227-7390
VL - 10
JO - Mathematics
JF - Mathematics
IS - 2
M1 - 280
ER -