Abstract

MELLER, Patricio  and  RAPPOPORT, David. ¿Son siempre las universidades la mejor opción para un título profesional? Evidencia chilena. El trimestre econ [online]. 2008, vol.75, n.300, pp.897-929.  Epub Nov 20, 2020. ISSN 2448-718X.

In this article we question the notion that the knowledge and abilities provided by professional institutes are necessarily lower than those of universities. In order to do so we compare labor incomes of their graduates correcting several methodological problems of previous studies that compare universities and other alternatives of higher education. Specifically, we compare programs given simultaneously by universities and professional institutes and use real cohorts instead of artificial ones. Our results refute the available evidence about labor income which suggests a relative dominance of universities over professional programs. An interesting result obtained is that controlling for the quality of the students received, the return to education at professional institutes is between 4 and 9 percentage points higher than the return to education at universities.

Keywords : educación superior; institutos profesionales; ingresos.