working papers
Follow the Leader: Student Strikes, School Absenteeism and Persistent Consequences on Educational Outcomes
I study the effect of school absenteeism on secondary school students’ academic outcomes using the 2011 Chilean student strikes as a source of exogenous variation. I show that school absenteeism has negative effects on students’ results in a postsecondary high-stakes mathematics exam and university enrollment. Instrumental variables estimations suggest that a 10 percentage point decrease in attendance during secondary school is related to a 9.5 percent of a standard deviation decline in the math exam score, and a 3.2 percentage point reduction in the associated probability of university enrollment. A key finding is the persistent negative effect of school absenteeism on students’ academic performance: this negative effect is present even for those students who sat the high-stakes exams after three years of regular schooling following the negative shock to their attendance. These results are not driven by inputs to the education production function that might have been affected by the student strikes, such as disruptiveness at the time of the high-stakes exams, school environment, teachers, class instruction, or class size. |
Estimating Value-Added Models for Doctoral Teaching Assistants: Evidence from a Random Assignment Procedure at a UK University - with Rocco d'Este and Giulio Trigilia [Draft available upon request]
This paper provides the first value-added (VA) estimates for doctoral teaching assistants (DTAs). We focus on the undergraduate program of the Economics Department at a UK university, where the match between students and DTAs is random. We find that a one standard deviation change in DTA quality increases students’ test scores by around 8.5 percent of a standard deviation. A novel feature of our data allows us to examine within-course dynamics in the VA estimates: These are larger for assessments taken during term-time, drop for end-of-term tests and are not statistically different from zero for final exams. The analysis suggests that the lack of persistence of the VA measures might be connected with: (i) Temporal decay in teacher-related human capital and (ii) students’ endogenous investment responses. We discuss how our results can inform the broader debate on the measurement of teachers quality via the VA approach. |
Points to Save Lives: The Effects of Traffic Enforcement Policies on Road Fatalities - with Miguel Almunia [Draft available upon request]
This paper studies the effects of a driving license penalty points system (PPS) introduced in Spain in 2006. We find a 20% decrease in cumulative road fatalities in the five years after the reform, compared to a synthetic control group constructed using a weighted average of other European countries. Evidence suggests that the persistent reduction in road fatalities might not only be driven by deterring risky-driving behavior, but also by taking reckless drivers out of the roads. Using estimates of the value of a statistical life, we calculate that the PPS yielded a net economic benefit of € 4.6 billion ($6 billion) over this period, equivalent to 0.43% of Spain's GDP. |
WORK IN PROGRESS
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Advanced Human Capital, Innovation and Entrepreneurship: Evidence from Chile - with Daniel Araya and Rodrigo Montero
Computers and Academic Attainments: Evidence from a Large-scale free-laptop Program - with Daniel Araya
Financial Aid on Access to Higher Education and Siblings Spillovers - with Juan Díaz and Ignacio Villarroel
Still on Time? Preventing Drug Consumption at Schools and Educational Outcomes
Advanced Human Capital, Innovation and Entrepreneurship: Evidence from Chile - with Daniel Araya and Rodrigo Montero
Computers and Academic Attainments: Evidence from a Large-scale free-laptop Program - with Daniel Araya
Financial Aid on Access to Higher Education and Siblings Spillovers - with Juan Díaz and Ignacio Villarroel
Still on Time? Preventing Drug Consumption at Schools and Educational Outcomes