Human capital, institutions, and incentives : micro and macro perspectives

This dissertation consists of four essays on human capital, institutions, and incentives. In the first essay, I investigate the effects of voucher-school competition on educational outcomes in Chile. I present a theoretical model that produces three empirical predictions: voucher-school competition 1) improves student outcomes; 2) may put stronger pressure on public schools to increase quality; and 3) has weaker effects when public school budget constraints are softer. I exploit the interaction of the number of Catholic priests and the institution of the voucher system as a potentially exogenous determinant of voucher school entry. Using this instrument, I confirm the main predictions of my theoretical model. In the second essay, I show that cross-country differences in schooling persist to the present because colonial factors influence the extent of institutional variables, such as democracy and political decentralization. By using the number of native cultures before colonization as an instrument for political decentralization, I show that the degree of democratization positively affects the development of primary education, whereas political decentralization is the more important explanation for differences in higher levels of schooling.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Economics.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2006

Author dc:creator

• Gallego, Francisco A

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Daron Acemoglu and Dora L. Costa.

• Economics.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/34504

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/34504