Non-Peer Productive Voucher Gains
RCTReview
Standard economic debates question whether school vouchers generate net educational productivity or merely redistribute access to high-achieving peers in a zero-sum sorting mechanism. Disentangling productive gains from peer effects requires testing voucher outcomes in settings where recipients do not gain access to observably superior peers.
Picture this
Imagine a ticket that lets kids switch sports leagues. If kids who receive the ticket end up in a league with less experienced teammates but still play significantly better overall, their improvement cannot be caused by riding on the coattails of stronger teammates. Instead, the ticket must be granting access to superior coaching or creating stronger personal motivation to practice.
What the evidence says
Among vocational applicants, voucher winners attended schools where peers were 25% less likely to attend college and 33% more likely to drop out. Despite worse peer characteristics, voucher winners experienced a 25% increase in high school graduation likelihood and a 0.33 to 0.66 standard deviation increase in college entrance exam (ICFES) scores.
- Who was studied
- N = 1,176 human student applicants (1995 cohort) and 300 target secondary schools in Bogotá, Colombia.
- How
- Randomized controlled trial leveraging a randomized voucher lottery (PACES program) comparing lottery winners and losers among applicants to private vocational schools.
What to do
Evaluate school voucher productivity by isolating sub-populations where lottery mechanisms assign recipients to lower-performing peer groups to control for zero-sum peer redistribution.
From the source
"Despite not having observably more desirable peers, among those who applied to vocational schools, voucher lottery winners have significantly better educational outcomes than losers, including a 25% increase in the likelihood of graduating from high school and a one-third of a standard deviation increase in college entrance exam scores."
Are Educational Vouchers Only Redistributive?