Seminar by Julian Messina

Sala Seminari – I° piano, Palazzo Levi Cases, Via del Santo 33 - ore 15.30

23.06.2016

Seminar by Julian Messina, Inter-American Development Bank

The Expansion of Higher Education in Colombia: Bad Students or Bad Programs?

A rapid expansion in the demand for post-secondary education triggered an unprecedented boom of higher education programs in Colombia, possibly deteriorating quality. This paper uses rich administrative data matching school admission information, socio-economic characteristics of the young graduates, standardized test scores pre- and post-tertiary education and entry wages, to assess the heterogeneity in the value added generated by new higher education programs. Our findings show that once we account for self-selection the penalty of attending a recently created program, which initially appeared to be quite large, becomes close to zero.