TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Avitabile, Ciro
AU  - Bobba, Matteo
AU  - Pariguana, Marco
        TI  - High School Track Choice and Liquidity Constraints: Evidence from Urban Mexico
        PY  - 2017/Jan/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 10506
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/publications/dp10506
        AB  - We study how a large household windfall affects sorting of relatively disadvantaged youth over high school tracks by exploiting the discontinuity in the assignment of a welfare program in Mexico. The in-cash transfer is found to significantly increase the probability of selecting vocational schools as the most preferred options vis-a-vis other more academically oriented education modalities. We find support for the hypothesis that the transfer relaxes the liquidity constraints preventing relatively poor students from choosing a schooling career with higher out-of-pocket expenditures and higher expected returns. The observed change in stated preferences across tracks effectively alters school placement, and bears a positive effect on on-time graduation.
        KW  - school choice
KW  - tracking
KW  - financial constraints
KW  - vocational education
KW  - returns to education
KW  - regression discontinuity design
        ER  -