Dictatorship, Higher Education, and Social Mobility

Abstract

We study the capture of higher education by the Pinochet dictatorship following the 1973 military coup in Chile. We show that the regime’s twin aims of political control and fiscal conservatism led to a large contraction of all universities in the country, mostly through a steady reduction in the number of openings for incoming students. As a result, individuals that reached college age in the years immediately after the military coup experienced a sharp decline in college enrollment. These individuals had worse labor market outcomes throughout the life cycle and struggled to climb up the socioeconomic ladder. Children with a parent in the affected cohorts are themselves less likely to enroll in university, even after democratization. These findings illustrate the relationship between political regimes, redistributive policies and social mobility. They also shed light on the long-lasting effects of the reform agenda implemented under Pinochet.

Does Higher Education Reduce Mortality? Evidence from a Natural Experiment in Chile

“…increased awareness of the health risks of smoking) will arguably play against us, given that we study a reduction in educational attainment among younger cohorts. Also relevant is the finding by Bautista et al (2020b), which we reproduce below, that the kink in college enrollment was entirely supply-driven, as the affected cohorts display no change in secondary completion and their college applications always exceeded the number of openings. 1 Further tests based on Conley et al (2012) indicate that violations of the exclusion restriction would have to be quite large (70% or more of the reduced-form effects) to make our findings insignificant.…”

“…closer to the counterfactual admissions cut-off) were the ones that failed to gain admission. Bautista et al (2020b) show that applicants from less affluent socio-economic backgrounds were disproportionately affected, but they represented a small share of enrollment and the socioeconomic composition of the student body was left largely unaffected. The number of universities and campuses would also remain unchanged until a large reform in 1981.…”

“…5 Around two dozen research centers and academic units deemed politically undesirable were shut down and extracurricular activities were banned or tightly controlled (Brunner, 1984). However, the vast majority of academic units continued functioning and the distribution of students across fields of study hardly changed (Bautista et al, 2020b). Moreover, several important features of the system were also left unchanged.…”

“…For this purpose, we exploit plausibly exogenous variation in university enrollment among cohorts that reached college age in a narrow window around the 1973 military coup that brought General Augusto Pinochet to power. As documented by Bautista et al (2020b), the Pinochet regime quickly assumed control of all universities in the country and steadily reduced public subsidies to higher education over the following years. This was part of the regime's technocratic reforms, aimed at reducing inefficient spending and fostering universities' financial independence.…”

“…The large decline in enrollment experienced by the affected cohorts (42% decrease between 1972 and 1981) makes for a very strong first stage. Moreover, Bautista et al (2020b) show that this decline had large negative socioeconomic consequences, increasing the plausibility of health effects.…”