Digging Deep: Resource Exploitation and Higher Education

Do resource-extraction booms crowd out postsecondary education? We explore this question by examining the higher education-related decisions of Chilean high school graduates during the 2000s commodities boom. We find mineral extraction increases a person's likelihood of enrolling in postsecondary technical education while reducing the likelihood of completing a four-year professional degree program. Importantly, effects are heterogeneous across economic backgrounds. The impact on college dropouts is primarily present among students that graduated from public high schools, which generally cater to low-income groups. Our findings show that natural resources may affect human capital accumulation differently across income groups in resource-rich economies.

Bibliographic Details

Main Author:	Inter-American Development Bank
Other Authors:	Lenin Balza
Language:	English
Published:	Inter-American Development Bank
Subjects:	Natural Resource, High School, Human Capital, Higher Education, Extractive Industry, Leasing, Educational Institution, Education, Labor Market, Economy, Rating, Q32 - Exhaustible Resources and Economic Development, Q33 - Resource Booms, I23 - Higher Education • Research Institutions, I25 - Education and Economic Development, I26 - Returns to Education, Resource Curse;ResourceBooms;Education;Latin America;Chile,
Online Access:	http://dx.doi.org/10.18235/0004495 https://publications.iadb.org/en/digging-deep-resource-exploitation-and-higher-education
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