Provisión de información del retorno y costo económico de la educación y su impacto en las aspiraciones educativas: evidencia desde un experimento aleatorio controlado en Cuenca, Ecuador

Abstract

In this research, we conducted a randomized controlled experiment that provided information about the return and economic cost of college to 832 second-year high school students in 25 public schools in Cuenca, Ecuador. We find that students tend to overestimate the return and underestimate the cost of education. After experiment, we find an update of the beliefs of return and educational cost and an increase in educational aspiration. Providing return information increased college aspiration and college cost information increased aspiration for technological level. In addition, we find that some sociodemographic characteristics increase educational aspiration, such as being a woman, coming from high-income households, having parents with a university education, and high academic performance. As for our analysis of behavioral factors, students with higher levels of confidence and lower present bias are more likely to pursue college education. While students who assume higher levels of risk tend to aspire to a technology.