Correspondencia de economía política y decisiones de educación en las familias después de la descentralización

Abstract

This paper evaluates the effects that the decentralization reforms implemented in Colombia during the early nineties had on the quality of public schools. Through panel data techniques at the school level we find that, in the Colombian context, po li ti cal eco nomy tra de-offs such as low abi lity of lo cal go vern ments, un fun ded mandates or local capture are not important factors in the determination of decentra-li za tion re sults. Con ver sely, ac coun ting for the chan ges in hou seholds' drop-out decisions can significantly alter the interpretation of such results implying the importance for future impact policy evaluation to directly take them into account. Specifically, allowing for households' schooling decisions to change, we find that the total effect of the reforms decreased the quality of public schooling. However, controlling for the significant changes in the drop-out rate of public school students that took place after the reforms were undertaken, we find that the quality of public schools actually improved.