Better together? Student’s benefits of integrated education markets (forthcoming Journal of Development Economics)

Centralized admission platforms are widely used for education markets; however, which institutions are included is usually based on historical or political context. To study the effects of including more institutions to admission platforms on students’ educational outcomes, we implement a difference-in-difference that exploits geographic exposition to markets that integrate in Chile.  Using administrative data, we show no effect on university enrollment, but a change in composition. While new platform institutions increased enrollment, old ones decreased. This seems driven by an increase in information –admission cutoffs release- when the platform integrates. Heterogeneity analysis shows that low-income students enrollment increase, reflecting barriers to decentralized admission institutions and implying gains in equity and efficiency of the system.   

Can immigration affect place effects? Accounting for the indirect effects of immigrants on native test scores. Working paper, submitted.

Migratory waves can transform neighborhoods. The arrival of immigrants to a neighborhood can trigger relocation responses from natives. Ignoring this indirect effect could underestimate the effect of immigrants on natives who remain in the neighborhood. This paper uses two different strategies to estimate the effect of immigrants on children’s test scores and shows that the responses of natives are indeed important. I exploit rich administrative data from Chile and variations in the municipality composition generated by a large increase in immigrants between 2013 and 2019. Using a shift-share instrument, I show that foreign students worsen place effects on test scores for students from less educated families. I also estimate the immigrant peer effects and find a null or positive effect. These results indicate that indirect effects can be relevant. In fact, richer and more educated families moving out and the resulting increase in socioeconomic segregation appears to be important drivers of my results. 

Price cap vaccination in India (with Surjasama Lahiri). Working paper

Lessons from an earthquake and tsunami on school outcomes in Chile. Working paper