Choosing Schools: Revealed Preferences, Structural Constraints, and School Segregation in Chile

• In Event: Choosing Schools: Preferences, Restraints, and Results

Abstract

This study analyzes the effect of the universal school choice policy on school segregation. Using highly original data that we consider are, so far, the best reflection of the true parental preferences, the article studies the disparities of preferences among parents of different socioeconomic conditions once controlling for the restriction to school choice: the parental add-on fees policy and the spatial mismatch in the distribution of educational opportunities. The data suggests that the effect of school choice on segregation is highly driven by these restrictions to choice that prevents all parents to structure their preferences in the same manner.

Author

• Carolina Flores, Agencia de Calidad de la Educación, Chile