Scholarship policy evaluation. The case of Progresar scholarships in Argentina

Abstract

Education can be considered as a motor for increasing productivity, subsequent growth and development. Moreover, it can also be considered the key to lower socioeconomical gaps in the society. Inequality in Latin America is a concern, with an average GINI coefficient higher than developed countries. Even though Argentina exhibits one of the lowest coefficients in the region, economical and especially educational inequality is something to improve. Therefore, public programs that aim to lower those gaps and inequality in every sense of the word are substantial for these countries. Considering this, we will analyze the Progresar scholarship program in Argentina in the period between 2018 and 2020 where the program muted from a conditional transfer to a merit-based scholarship. The unique administrative dataset used by the office in the Ministry of Education is a novel data for research, and even with some flaws that are considered in this work, can provide policy makers with empirical studies to make better funded decisions. We use a logit regression to measure the impact of the scholarship on the dropout of starter students for a specific university. Results suggest that the scholarship increases the odds of continuity in a career in the university and that female students have a higher chance than male students to continue in their first year. We also use an OLS estimation to test the impact of the scholarship on first-years’ performance. Results suggest that there is a positive impact of the scholarship though not consistently neither of considerable size.