Adriano De Falco - Research

Working Papers

Recruiting Better Teachers? Evidence from a Higher Education Reform in Chile

(w. Benjamin Hattemer & Sofia Sierra Vasquez)

Presented at: 8th LEER conference, 1st CESifo/ifo Junior Workshop on the Economics of Education, EALE 2023, SAEe 2023, AIEL - Padua Workshop on the Economics of Human Capital 2024, EAYE conference 2024, 6th QMUL Economics and Finance Workshop for PhD & Post-doctoral Students, BSE Summer Forum 2024, XVI Labour Economics Meeting, 39th AIEL Conference.

Winner of the Luis Toharia Grants (XVI Labour Economics Meeting)

[ssrn] [EUI Blog]

Abstract: This paper analyzes the impact of a recruitment policy in Chile designed to improve the quality of new teachers by incentivizing high-achieving and restricting low-achieving high school graduates from entering the teaching profession. We document that the reform effectively improved the average test scores of new teachers. We construct teacher value-added (TVA) measures and find that the reform increased TVA for mathematics but not for Spanish teachers. Finally, we show that most of the effect cannot be explained by new teachers' higher average test scores, but rather can be attributed to beneficial but unintended effects of the reform.

Sibship Size and Leaving the Parental Home

(w. Elia Moracci & Alberto Venturin) Revision requested by Demography

Presented at: 1st Naples School of Economics and Finance PhD and Post-Doctoral Workshop, 2022 Postgraduate Population Studies Conference, 2023 PopDays conference, 2023 PAA Annual Meeting, 39th AIEL Conference.

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Abstract: We investigate whether the decision of young adults on when to leave the parental home is influenced by the number of siblings they have, in the context of European countries over the last seventy years. Using data from two large surveys and exploiting random variation in sibship size induced by twin births, we identify the causal effect of having an extra sibling on the timing of home-leaving. We find that one additional sibling speeds up the transition to independent living by roughly six months. We provide evidence that our results directly stem from a decrease in the value of intergenerational coresidence implied by having an extra sibling.

Effort and Retention among Teachers: Evidence from a Skills-Based Incentive Contract

(Draft available upon request)

Publications

Grants vs. Loans: the Role of Financial Aid in College Major Choice

(w. Yannick Reichlin) Conditionally accepted by The Economic Journal

[ssrn] [EUI Blog]

Abstract: Using administrative data from Chile, we analyze whether financing higher education through student loans or grants affects the college major choices of prospective university students. We exploit institutional arrangements that allocate either type of financing based on a standardized test to locally identify exogenous variation in access. Students who are marginally eligible for grants are more likely to enroll in high-paying fields such as STEM. We complement this reduced-form result with a discrete choice model that we estimate on data for narrowly defined higher education programs drawn from past graduates. The results indicate that, holding other program characteristics constant, grant recipients place higher value on fields with high earnings growth potential, while being less concerned about a lower graduation probability.