Research
Publications
Vol. 133, Issue 649. Pages 355-389. January 2023. The Economic Journal
[Online Appendix] [Replication Package]
Vol. 95, Page 102384. August 2023. Economics of Education Review
[Online Appendix] [WP]
Working Papers in English
3) Home Broadband and Human Capital Formation (with Rosa Sanchís-Guarner and Felix Weinhardt) CESifo Working paper series 8846
R&R at Management Science
Abstract: Using administrative data, we estimate the effect of home broadband speed on student-level value-added test scores. Our headline estimate relies on jumps in connection quality between close neighbours that occur across thousands of invisible telephone exchange station catchment-area boundaries. We find that increasing speed by 1 Mbit/s increases test scores by 1.37 percentile ranks, equivalent to 5% of a standard deviation. School-level factors or broadband take-up cannot explain this. Instead, the positive effects are concentrated among high-ability and non-free-school-meal eligible students and result from more education-oriented internet use. Differences in ICT quality can thus lead to increasing education inequalities.
4) Gender Differences in Performance: The Role of External Testing Environments (with Almudena Sevilla)
(Draft coming soon)
Abstract: We exploit a randomized control trial intervention on the whole student population in Madrid to study gender differences in response to high pressure testing-environments, defined by whether a test is externally administered. In the trial, students were exposed to different levels of pressure while other factors, such as competition, stakes, and time pressure, remained constant. Our findings indicate that girls perform worse than boys in high-pressure test taking environments, particularly in subjects with strong stereotypes of female inabilities such as mathematics. A survey administered after each exam revealed that girls have a lower tolerance for pressure and lower incentive to exert effort under high-pressure conditions in mathematics but not in verbal. These findings can explain the increase in the gender gap in mathematics under high-pressure settings.
5) Inequality in College Applications: Evidence from Three Continents (with Adam Altjmed, Andres Barrios, Aspacia Bizopoulou, Martti Kaila, Christopher Neilson, Sebastián Otero, and Xiaoyang Ye)
(Draft coming soon)
Abstract: This paper documents large gaps in the fields and in the quality of the college programs to which individuals from different gender and social groups apply in Brazil, Chile, China, Finland, Greece, Spain, and Sweden. These seven countries are different in size, economic development, culture, and geographic location. However, in all of them, universities select their students through centralized admissions. This feature of their higher education systems allows us to study differences in college applications conditioning on the most important factor that colleges use to select their students—i.e., students’ academic performance. We document a large and significant gender gap in preferences for fields of study. Even after conditioning on academic performance, women are between 20 and 40 percentage points less likely to apply to STEM degrees, and between 10 and 30 percentage points more likely to apply to health degrees. In addition, we find that even after conditioning on academic performance, individuals from households with low parental education apply to worse-quality college programs measured by peer test scores. Indeed, low-SES students at the top of the academic performance distribution apply to programs in which peer scores are between 0.05σ and 0.25σ lower than in the programs to which similarly talented students from high-SES backgrounds apply. Our results show that the gaps that we observe in college applications are not fully explained by institutional barriers or academic potential. Differences in preferences across gender and social groups seem to drive an important part of these gaps.
6) How do teachers respond to smaller classes? Evidence and Implications for Student Learning (with Damon Clark, Alexandra de Gendre and Pierre Deschamps)
Abstract: This paper studies how teachers respond to smaller classes and how these responses impact student achievement in the Region of Madrid (Spain), a region of over 1 million school-aged children and 3,000 schools. We exploit the maximum class size rule that generates sharp discontinuities in the relationship between school enrollment and average class size. We estimate the impact of class size reductions on teacher responses and student test scores using regression discontinuity models. We link data covering three key elements at the classroom level: administrative data on student enrollments, administrative data on student test scores and information on teacher responses from teacher survey data covering the universe of teachers and containing rich information on their classroom activities. Our findings shed light on the mechanisms that explain how class size reductions can enhance student learning.
Ongoing Research
Affirmative Action during Early Childhood: School Choice, Academic Performance and School Satisfaction (with Alexandra de Gendre and Shushanik Margaryan)
The effect of university field of study on civic behaviours ( with Adam Altmejd and Luis Cornago). [Pre-Analysis Plan]
The impact of regional migration on education and labor market outcomes (with Roberto Asmat and Nicolas Navarrete)
The trade-off of bilingual education: Shakespeare vs. Cervantes (with Brindusa Anghel and Ismael Sanz)
Non-Peer-Reviewed Publications (in Spanish)
1) "Financiación Universitaria: Desafíos y Soluciones Potenciales". Revista de Economía ICE. Economía de la Educación y Política Educativa. Num. 910. Septiembre-Octubre 2019
2) "¿Qué sabemos sobre el efecto del tipo de jornada escolar en el rendimiento académico?" (with Laura Crespo, Martín Fernández Sánchez and Laura Hospido) Indicadores comentados sobre el estado del sistema educativo español, Fundación Ramón Areces y Fundación Europea Sociedad y Educación, 2019
3) "¿Por qué las becas universitarias llegan tarde? Soluciones para España" Indicadores comentados sobre el estado del sistema educativo español, Fundación Ramón Areces y Fundación Europea Sociedad y Educación, 2020
Chapters in Books (in Spanish)
1) "Cómo incrementar la movilidad social fomentando el acceso a la educación superior: FP, Becas y Financiación Universitaria" (with Rosa Sanchís-Guarner). Un país posible: Manual de reformas políticamente viables. Editorial Deusto.
Policy Reports (in English and Spanish)
1) Fracaso escolar en España: ¿Por qué afecta tanto a los chicos y alumnos de bajo nivel socioeconómico? EsadeEcPol brief #29 (September 2022)
2) ¿Cómo aumentar el acceso de las mujeres a disciplinas cientíticas y técnicas en la educación superior? EsadeEcPol brief #13 (June 2021)
3) Diagnóstico de la situación educativa de la Comunidad de Madrid en 2015 a través del examen TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) (November 2016)
4) Improving students’ reading habits and solving their early performance cost exposure: evidence from a bilingual high school program in the Region of Madrid (May 2016)
NOTE: Policy Reports are available upon request