Financial Aid and Higher Education Dropout in Colombia

摘要

One of the reasons for a government to support an education system is its role in productivity growth of its citizens and nation's economic development. Although in some less-developed countries, such as Colombia, there is low levels of non-participation in primary and secondary education, there are high levels of dropout in higher education. The Colombian educational loan system experienced some changes to comply the 2010 National Agreement to Reduce Dropout. This paper analyzes the behavior of higher education dropout and its relation with financial aid before and after this Agreement. By means of a discrete-time logit model and a difference-in-differences approach, there is evidence that loans conditions after the National Agreement would not have achieved its goal.