Who Benefits from the Elimination of School Enrolment Fees? Evidence from Ecuador

Priscila Hermida

Revista Desarrollo y Sociedad, 2015

Abstract: This paper evaluates the effect of an enrolment fee elimination program in Ecuador. Using propensity score matching, I estimate the impact of the initiative on dropout rates for primary and secondary school students. Overall, the findings suggest that the program had non-negligible and positive effects on the probability of continuing in school one year after the intervention for those students enrolled in the 2007-2008 school year, in spite of already high enrolment and low dropout rates. The estimated difference between paying and non-paying students in continuation rates is around 2 to 4 percentage points. The impact of fee elimination is heterogeneous to demographic characteristics. Male, urban and non-poor students seem to benefit the most. The program has no effect for female, rural or poorer students. Much bigger differences in continuation rates exist between groups of secondary students. The effects are particularly significant for male secondary school students.

Keywords: Education; user fees; enrolment; propensity score matching. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C21 H24 I28 I38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:col:000090:013305

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