Seminario CEA-MIPP - Miercoles 22/10/2025, 12:30 HRS - Sala de Consejo, piso 4, Beauchef 851 - "Catholic schools and student performance: Evidence from Chile’s school-admission lottery" - Isabela Munevar (U. de los Andes - Chile)

Tema: «Catholic schools and student performance: Evidence from Chile’s school-admission lottery«

Presenta: Isabela Munevar (U. de los Andes – Chile)

Catholic schools are the largest nongovernmental school network in the world, serving 62.2 million students globally. This paper uses Chilean data to assess the impact of Catholic versus secular voucher or public-school attendance on student outcomes. I address admission selection bias by leveraging exogenous variation from school admission lotteries and controls for students’ probability of securing a seat in each type of school. My causal estimates reveal that students attending Catholic schools have a 17 percent higher probability of taking the college entry exam (CEE) than those who attend secular public schools. Additionally, Catholic school attendance raises students’ chances of scoring above the national mean by 33 percent in math and 45 percent in reading. Catholic school attendance also increases students’ probability of applying and being accepted to college. Nevertheless, attending Catholic schools raises dropout rates for boys with low baseline ability. Notably, the positive CEE effects are driven by girl students; however, attending a Catholic school appears to dissuade girls from pursuing STEM majors. Survey evidence reveals that Catholic schools have stricter disciplinary measures and foster higher levels of parent involvement than other public and secular institutions—characteristics commonly associated with high-achieving charter schools.

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