Growing evidence warns about the detrimental effects of the stress induced by natural disasters on learning outcomes. Yet less is known about how political leadership could mitigate the adverse exposure to these events. Exploiting a natural experiment--the massive 2010 earthquake in Chile--as an exogenous shock and using fine-grained student data,…

This book examines the decentralization and privatization of schools in Chile. It analyzes whether the introduction of market mechanisms in the supply of, and demand for, schools enhances educational performance. The text discusses the microeconomic assumptions underlying the proposition that elementary and secondary education could function as a…