Abstract
Abstract I study the long-term consequences of an effective free school choice program that targeted disadvantaged students in Israel two decades ago. I show that the program led to significant gains in post-secondary education through increased enrolment in academic and teachers’ colleges without any increase in enrolment in research universities. Free school choice also increased earnings at the adulthood of treated students. Male students had much larger improvements in college schooling and labor market outcomes. Female students, however, experienced higher increases in marriage and fertility rates, which most likely interfered with their schooling and labor market outcomes.
Highlights
The evaluation of educational programs and interventions has focused on short-term outcomes, primarily standardized test scores, as a measure of success
The main question I address here is whether the effects of free school choice persist beyond attainment and test scores in high school, and lead to long-term enhancements to human capital and well-being
The employment and earnings data are available until year 2014, so thirteen years is the longest period after graduating high school for which we examine the effect of the program
Summary
The evaluation of educational programs and interventions has focused on short-term outcomes, primarily standardized test scores, as a measure of success. It is important to note that these results are general equilibrium in nature, because those affected by the experiment are a very small proportion of their cohort and the expansion in post-secondary schooling in the treated sample is not at the expense of others who could have been ‘crowded out’ by the new demand for higher education These effects occurred during a period of expansion of the supply of academic colleges in Israel. The concern of general equilibrium effect will have to be addressed in a context of at scale implementation of such school choice program Alongside these gains in post-secondary schooling, average annual earnings among treated students 11-13 years after high school graduation increased by 6-7 percent relative to the control group mean.
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