Looking ahead? Higher education expansion and teenagers’ outcomes in Brazil

• In Event: Student Support in an International Perspective

Abstract

Human capital accumulation in low and middle-income countries has faced slow growth in the past decades, leading governments to expand free access to schooling at all levels of education. However, large investments in expanding tertiary education raise criticism in these contexts, where attainment often falls below high school completion. In this paper, I exploit a large federal program in Brazil that more than doubled the supply of free technical and traditional higher education institutions (HEI) to assess whether higher education investments can impact students’ educational decisions and human capital accumulation at pre-tertiary levels. In particular, I measure the effect of receiving a HEI on local students’ high school dropout rates and standardized test scores in grades 5 and 9. Using staggered differences-in-differences, I find that the arrival of a HEI increases pre-tertiary students’ persistence and test scores. I further explore whether these gains in pre-tertiary attainment translate into changes in college-going behavior and improved labor market outcomes. I find sizeable impacts on college exam test-taking, college enrollment rates, and wages. I explore potential differential effects by type of HEI received and find that the increase in persistence is solely driven by municipalities that received a trade school, while university openings drive large gains in 5th-grade test scores. Increases in future earnings are only observed in municipalities that received a university. Addressing potential mechanisms, I find sharp decreases in child labor and mixed effects on parental investment in children’s education by type of HEI received.

Author

• Virna Vidal Menezes, University of Notre Dame
  Presenting Author