Advancing Women’s and Indigenous Groups’ Educational Achievement: Changes in Outcomes following the 2017 Ley de Gratuidad in Chile

Matthew Carnes () and Raimundo Salas-Schweikart
Additional contact information
Matthew Carnes: Government Department, Georgetown University, 3700 O ST NW, Washington, DC 20057, USA
Raimundo Salas-Schweikart: Psychology Department, Georgetown University, 3700 O ST NW, Washington, DC 20057, USA

Social Sciences, 2023, vol. 12, issue 6, 1-15

Abstract: Who benefits when economic costs to the pursuit of higher education are diminished? Can such reforms advance the educational trajectory of historically marginalized groups, including women and indigenous people, or are historic social inequalities replicated in the use of new opportunities? The 2016 Ley de Gratuidad in Chile presents a unique opportunity to examine who benefits and how when the state provides a policy guaranteeing free higher education at participating universities. Given the systematic biases and cultural norms faced by women and indigenous people in Chile and the broad design of the state-led policy, the educational reform constitutes an important test of the extent to which lowering costs can facilitate education across an economically and socially diverse population. Leveraging data from two waves of a household survey, this paper finds that educational attainment, measured in the number of years of schooling achieved by respondents, is significantly higher for those who receive such a benefit, consistent with the design and intent of the policy. More surprisingly, these increases in years of education occur for women and indigenous people, even though no programmatic element emphasizes these groups. The results suggest that state financing is significantly associated with promoting higher education in the population and that women, the poor, and indigenous people are significant beneficiaries of this effect despite the social and cultural barriers in the country.

Keywords: education; gender; poverty; gratuity; Chile (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A B N P Y80 Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/12/6/353/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/12/6/353/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:12:y:2023:i:6:p:353-:d:1170550

Access Statistics for this article

Social Sciences is currently edited by Ms. Yvonne Chu

More articles in Social Sciences from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().