IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ecj/econjl/v120y2010i546pf204-f228.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Are Educational Vouchers Only Redistributive?

Author

Listed:
  • Eric Bettinger
  • Michael Kremer
  • Juan E. Saavedra

Abstract

It is unclear if vouchers increase educational productivity or are purely redistributive, benefiting recipients by giving them access to more desirable peers at others' expense. To examine this, we study an educational voucher programme in Colombia which allocated vouchers by lottery. Among voucher applicants to vocational schools, lottery winners were less likely to attend academic secondary schools and thus had peers with less desirable observable characteristics. Despite this, lottery winners had better educational outcomes. In this population, vouchers improved educational outcomes through channels beyond redistribution of desirable peers. We discuss potential channels which may explain the observed effects. Copyright © The Author(s). Journal compilation © Royal Economic Society 2010.

Suggested Citation

  • Eric Bettinger & Michael Kremer & Juan E. Saavedra, 2010. "Are Educational Vouchers Only Redistributive?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 120(546), pages 204-228, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:ecj:econjl:v:120:y:2010:i:546:p:f204-f228
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Juan A. Correa & Francisco Parro & Loreto Reyes, 2014. "The Effects of Vouchers on School Results: Evidence from Chile's Targeted Voucher Program," Journal of Human Capital, University of Chicago Press, vol. 8(4), pages 351-398.
    2. Dennis Epple & Richard E. Romano & Miguel Urquiola, 2017. "School Vouchers: A Survey of the Economics Literature," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 55(2), pages 441-492, June.
    3. Anders Böhlmark & Mikael Lindahl, 2015. "Independent Schools and Long-run Educational Outcomes: Evidence from Sweden's Large-scale Voucher Reform," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 82(327), pages 508-551, July.
    4. Figlio, D. & Karbownik, K. & Salvanes, K.G., 2016. "Education Research and Administrative Data," Handbook of the Economics of Education,, Elsevier.
    5. Balestra, Simone & Backes-Gellner, Uschi, 2017. "Heterogeneous returns to education over the wage distribution: Who profits the most?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 89-105.
    6. Felipe Barrera-Osorio & Dario Maldonado & Catherine Rodríguez, 2012. "Calidad de la educación básica y media en Colombia: diagnóstico y propuestas," Documentos de Trabajo 10078, Universidad del Rosario.
    7. Juan Esteban Saavedra & Sandra Garcia, 2012. "Impacts of Conditional Cash Transfer Programs on Educational Outcomes in Developing Countries A Meta-analysis," Working Papers WR-921-1, RAND Corporation.
    8. Benjamin Feigenberg, 2021. "Priced Out: Aggregate Income Shocks And School Pricing In The Chilean Voucher Market," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 59(2), pages 696-721, April.
    9. Vandenberg, Paul & Laranjo, Jade, 2021. "Vocational training and labor market outcomes in the Philippines," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    10. David S. Kaplan & Rafael Novella & Graciana Rucci & Claudia Vazquez, 2015. "Training Vouchers and Labor Market Outcomes in Chile," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 88674, Inter-American Development Bank.
    11. Saavedra, Juan Esteban & Garcia, Sandra, 2012. "Impacts of Conditional Cash Transfer Programs on Educational Outcomes in Developing Countries: A Meta-analysis," Working Papers 921-1, RAND Corporation.
    12. Fabre, Anaïs & Straub, Stéphane, 2019. "The Impact of Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) in Infrastructure, Health and Education: A Review," TSE Working Papers 19-986, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE), revised Sep 2021.
    13. Eric Bettinger & Michael Kremer & Maurice Kugler & Carlos Medina & Christian Posso & Juan E. Saavedra, 2019. "School Vouchers, Labor Markets and Vocational Education," Borradores de Economia 1087, Banco de la Republica de Colombia.
    14. Lamarche, Carlos, 2011. "Measuring the incentives to learn in Colombia using new quantile regression approaches," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(2), pages 278-288, November.
    15. Juan Esteban Saavedra & Carlos Medina, 2012. "Formación para el Trabajo en Colombia," Documentos CEDE 10315, Universidad de los Andes, Facultad de Economía, CEDE.
    16. Arlen Guarín & Sebastián Londoño & Carlos Medina & Julieth Parra & Christian Posso & Carlos Eduardo Vélez, 2016. "Estimating the Effect of Attending a Public versus a Private University in Colombia on Academic Achievement **** Una Estimación del Efecto sobre el Rendimiento Académico de Asistir a una Universidad P," Borradores de Economia 968, Banco de la Republica de Colombia.
    17. Zhang, Hongliang, 2016. "Identification of treatment effects under imperfect matching with an application to Chinese elite schools," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 56-82.
    18. Santibañez, Lucrecia & Saavedra, Juan E. & Kattan, Raja B. & Patrinos, Harry A., 2021. "Comprehensive private schooling for low-income children: Experimental case-study evidence from Mexico," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    19. Attanasio, Orazio & Kugler, Adriana & Meghir, Costas, 2009. "Subsidizing Vocational Training for Disadvantaged Youth in Developing Countries: Evidence from a Randomized Trial," IZA Discussion Papers 4251, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    20. Gabriel Heller Sahlgren, 2014. "Handing Over the School Keys: The Impact of Privatisation on Education Quality," Economic Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(2), pages 196-210, June.
    21. W. Bentley MacLeod & Miguel Urquiola, 2018. "Is Education Consumption or Investment? Implications for the Effect of School Competition," NBER Working Papers 25117, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    22. Arlen Guarín & Carlos Medina & Christian Posso, 2018. "Calidad, cobertura y costo ocultos de la educación secundaria pública y privada en Colombia," Revista Desarrollo y Sociedad, Universidad de los Andes,Facultad de Economía, CEDE, vol. 81(2), August.
    23. Luz Adriana Florez & Lina Cardona-Sosa & Leonardo Fabio Morales & Julian Londoño, 2018. "The Returns from Training in Colombia: Evidence from a Longitudinal Survey," Borradores de Economia 1048, Banco de la Republica de Colombia.
    24. Arlen Guarín & Carlos Medina & Christian Posso, 2017. "Calidad y Cobertura de la Educación Secundaria Pública y Privada en Colombia, y sus Costos Ocultos," Borradores de Economia 1006, Banco de la Republica de Colombia.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ecj:econjl:v:120:y:2010:i:546:p:f204-f228. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley-Blackwell Digital Licensing or Christopher F. Baum (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/resssea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.