Search

Background: Voucher systems in education firmly rely on the parent's ability to choose their child's school at any time during their schooling years. This ability, however, is reduced by switching costs. Methods: Using an identification for each student from fourth grade in 2000 to eighth grade in 2004, so we were able to verify if they changed schools. Thus, we can compare the expected utility associated with the chosen school with a new school that was not available in 2000 and the estimation of switching costs. Results: We find that on average switching costs are statistically significant and economically relevant and that affect the decision to change the chosen school. Also, we show marginal changes in their levels of utility aren't sufficiently significant to make decision to change at chosen school identifying an eventual threshold. Conclusions: The natural concern regarding parents' capacity to react is given by the existence of switching costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The positive impact that competition has on performance in most industries has been questioned in the education sector. The difficulty to measure competition, the idea that parents don't rationally choose schools for their children, and that schools do not react to that choice is in the center of the debate. We critically analyze the prevailing methodology in the literature that relates competition and educational performance, and the data used to estimate that impact. We propose a methodology that considers relevant substitutes for each school using various attributes which parents consider when choosing schools, and we apply it to estimate the effect o f competition on educational performance in Chile, were more than 90% of the students are covered by a voucher. The evidence supports the hypothesis that competition has a positive, statistically significant, and economically relevant educational impact on private and public schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The educational voucher system builds on the pillars of informed choice and competition to improve the quality of the education provided. This document summarizes some of the results of recent literature on the subject, and discusses their public policy implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: One of the pillars of the educational voucher system is that competition among schools to attract students would improve the quality of the education. Surveys to parents and previous work suggested that families rank the distance of the school from their home as the most important factor for choosing a school. They also suggest that parents largely ignore the results of standardized tests. We use a novel data-set which includes precise measures of the distance between homes and schools to analyze the determinants of school choice in Chile. Economic theory suggests, and the estimations confirm, that parents consider quality and the location when choosing schools. The paper quantifies the relevant trade-offs. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]