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Advocates argue that vouchers can make improved educational opportunity available to disadvantaged students. Critics contend that vouchers increase the risk of stratification. Researchers have found that Chile's voucher program has lead to increased socioeconomic school segregation. What has been overlooked, however, is segregation between schools within a sector and variation within private for-profit and non-profit school sectors. I find that public schools are more likely to serve disadvantaged students than private voucher schools. I also find that disadvantaged students are more segregated among private voucher schools than among public schools. While between and within sector segregation levels vary across private voucher school types, the differences are not always consistent with theory. The data also suggest that policies can either mitigate or exacerbate the stratifying effects of educational vouchers. (Contains 1 figure and 12 tables.)

There is persistent debate over the role of scale of operations in education. Some argue that school franchises offer educational services more effectively than small independent schools. Skeptics counter that large centralized operations create hard-to-manage bureaucracies and foster diseconomies of scale and that small schools are more effective at promoting higher quality education. We can gain insight into this debate by examining Chile's national voucher program. This paper uses 4th-grade data to compare achievement in private franchises, private independent, and public schools in Chile. Our findings suggest that franchises have a large advantage over independent schools, once student and peer attributes and selectivity are controlled for. We also find that further disaggregating school franchises widens the larger franchise advantage. We conclude that policies oriented to create incentives for private school owners to join or start up a franchise may have the potential for improving educational outcomes. (Contains 1 figure, 7 tables, and 20 notes.)

This paper studies school choice and information frictions in Haiti. Through a randomized control trial, we assess the impact of disclosing school-level test score information on learning outcomes, prices, and market shares. We find evidence that in markets where information was disclosed, students attending private schools increased test scores. The results also suggest private schools with higher baseline test scores increased their market share as well as their fees when the disclosure policy is implemented. While prices and test scores were not significantly correlated in the baseline survey, they exhibited a significant and positive correlation in treatment markets after information disclosure. These results underscore the potential of information provision to enhance market efficiency and improve children's welfare in context such as Haiti. • Survey data from parents in Haiti on school preferences reveal demand for quality schools but significant information asymmetries. • Results suggest disclosure policy increased correlation between test scores and prices. • RCT evidence indicates information provision can improve student outcomes in poor education markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article investigates the effectiveness of network of schools than stand-alone schools in Chile. Some of the schools that belong in a network are operated by teachers or business entrepreneurs while 59% of them are run by nonprofit entities. It was claimed by proponents of school networks that such model facilitates the flow of information and provides more access to private investments and loans. A study in Chile and the U.S. found that Catholic schools outperform public and other private schools.