{"id":1198,"date":"2019-09-08T18:40:45","date_gmt":"2019-09-08T18:40:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.test\/opportunity-go-university-motivates-poor-students-evidence-colombia\/"},"modified":"2023-04-19T11:44:58","modified_gmt":"2023-04-19T11:44:58","slug":"opportunity-go-university-motivates-poor-students-evidence-colombia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globaldev.blog\/opportunity-go-university-motivates-poor-students-evidence-colombia\/","title":{"rendered":"The opportunity to go to university motivates poor students: Evidence from Colombia"},"content":{"rendered":"
If talented young people from poor families have the chance to go to university, will they be encouraged to study harder and achieve better test scores at school? This column reports on the motivational effects of a program introduced in Colombia in 2014, which granted full scholarships for low-income students at top universities. The opportunity to receive a scholarship significantly boosted results in the national high school exit exam. This suggests that beyond the direct effect of scholarships on their recipients, they can affect a much broader range of eligible students, for whom the opportunity stimulates greater effort. Such schemes can promote social mobility and more inclusive development.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n A longstanding view among many economists is that some degree of inequality<\/a> is necessary to reward effort and encourage entrepreneurial activities. But a growing body of evidence<\/a> indicates that inequality hinders the accumulation of human capital\u2014and not only because children in poor families cannot afford to go to school.<\/p>\n Not being able to afford college can affect children\u2019s education long before the time to apply for a place. The loss in human capital is explained not only by the fact that financial restrictions prevent talented students from accessing good universities, but also because the lack of opportunities discourages them from working hard earlier on in their education. Student loans and scholarships partly address this issue by creating an opportunity for promising students to go to university.<\/p>\n In recent research<\/a>, we analyze how opportunities created by a nationwide scholarship program can change the motivation of low-income students in Colombia. Ser Pilo Paga (SPP) was introduced in 2014 and granted 10,000 full scholarships per year to enter high-quality universities. The program combined merit and needs-based criteria to allow talented students from low-income families to continue their education in the best universities in the country.<\/p>\n