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Walking in your footsteps: Sibling spillovers in higher education choices

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  • Aguirre, Josefa
  • Matta, Juan

Abstract

This paper studies spillovers from older to younger siblings in higher education choices. Exploiting discontinuous admission rules generated by Chile’s centralized admission system to higher education, we identify strong sibling spillovers in the choice of college. Having an older sibling enroll in a given college increases by 42% the probability of enrolling in that institution. In contrast, we find no effect on major choices. We show evidence suggesting that sibling spillovers in college choice are mainly driven by siblings deriving benefits from attending college together.

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  • Aguirre, Josefa & Matta, Juan, 2021. "Walking in your footsteps: Sibling spillovers in higher education choices," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecoedu:v:80:y:2021:i:c:s0272775720305483
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econedurev.2020.102062
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    Cited by:

    1. Gordon B. Dahl & Dan-Olof Rooth & Anders Stenberg, 2020. "Intergenerational and Sibling Spillovers in High School Majors," NBER Working Papers 27618, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Gonzalez, Felipe & Prem, Mounu, 2020. "Police Repression and Protest Behavior: Evidence from Student Protests in Chile," SocArXiv 3xk5r, Center for Open Science.
    3. Bautista, M. A. & Gonzalez, F & Martinez, L. R & Muñoz, P & Prem, M, 2022. "The Intergenerational Transmission of College: Evidence from the 1973 Coup in Chile," Documentos de Trabajo 20503, Universidad del Rosario.
    4. Valdebenito, Rocio, 2023. "Gender Differences in the Effect of High School Peers on College Major Choices: Evidence from Chile," 2023 Annual Meeting, July 23-25, Washington D.C. 335725, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    5. Avdeev, Stanislav & Ketel, Nadine & Oosterbeek, Hessel & van der Klaauw, Bas, 2023. "Spillovers in Fields of Study: Siblings, Cousins, and Neighbors," IZA Discussion Papers 16453, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Social interactions; Siblings; College choice; Major choice; Chile;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I20 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - General
    • I23 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Higher Education; Research Institutions
    • I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • D19 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Other

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