Using school scholarships to estimate the effect of private education on the academic achievement of low-income students in Chile

Priyanka Anand, Alejandra Mizala, Andrea Repetto

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

35 Scopus citations

Abstract

This paper estimates the impact of private education on the academic achievement of low-income students in Chile. To deal with selection bias, we use propensity score matching to compare the test scores of reduced-fee paying, low-income students in fee-charging private voucher schools to those of similar students in public schools and free private voucher schools. Our results reveal that students in fee-charging private voucher schools score slightly higher than students in public schools. The difference in standardized test scores is approximately 10 points, a test score gain of 0.2 standard deviations. We find no difference in the academic achievement of students in the fee-charging private voucher treatment group relative to their counterparts in free private voucher schools.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)370-381
Number of pages12
JournalEconomics of Education Review
Volume28
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 2009

Keywords

  • Educational vouchers
  • School choice
  • Student financial aid

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