Estimados/as Académicos/as,

Les extendemos la invitación al seminario que organiza el Departamento de Economía, en el que se presentará el trabajo titulado "Shifting Pathways: Displacement, Substitution, and the System-Wide Effects of Preferential College Admissions".

Expone: Ursula Mello, Profesora Asociada, INSPER, Institute of Education and Research.

Coautores: Ana Paula Melo, Alei Santos.

Abstract: Admission policies can reshape students’ educational pathways well before college entry by changing admission opportunities and incentives to invest in education. We study these responses using Brazil’s 2012 Federal Quota Law, which sharply expanded reserved seats for historically underrepresented students in elite public universities. Exploiting geographic variation in treatment intensity induced by differences in pre-existing quota policies, we implement a matched difference-in-differences design and follow cohorts of students from the beginning of high school through college completion. We find that targeted students increase educational investments and college enrollment, while non-targeted students substitute toward private institutions rather than withdraw from higher education. Importantly, this reallocation is followed by higher on-time college completion, showing that the adjustment extends beyond preserving college enrollment. These responses extend beyond the institutions directly affected by the policy and show that affirmative action reshapes educational pathways through both behavioral adjustments before college entry and system-wide reallocation across higher-education institutions.

El formato será presencial en la sala P-303.

Saludos cordiales,

Dirección de Investigación