This study highlights the geographical challenges in addressing mismatch disparities in Chile, which might help explain the persistence of inequalities after the introduction of large-scale equity policies in this country.

Take a look at the paper, it is Open Access!

As a result, the socioeconomic gap increases as I compare students living farther away from a matching degree (see figure below). This gap decreases by 58% when comparing students equally close to high-ranked degrees.

Geographical constraints are more pronounced among low-SES students, who have fewer institutions nearby. Also, the smaller share of high-SES students residing farther from a matching degree travel longer distances than the larger share of low-SES students in the same situation.

When comparing equally high-achieving students, low-SES students are significantly more likely to enrol in institutions with lower labour market outcomes than what they could aim for (undermatch). This result holds when comparing students entering the same field of study.

As a little bit of context, Chile is a loooong country, and higher education institutions are unevenly distributed nationwide (as shown in the map). The highest-status universities are concentrated in a few cities, particularly in Santiago (the capital).

The second paper showed that, once schools reopened, many students could not attend due to infrastructure restrictions to comply with distance guidelines. When they could attend, many low-SES students and their families remained at home, exacerbating socioeconomic disparities.

The second paper showed that, once schools reopened, many students could not attend due to infrastructure restrictions to comply with distance guidelines. When they could attend, many low-SES students and their families remained at home, exacerbating socioeconomic disparities.

The first paper showed that once schools were allowed to reopen, many school authorities decided not to, leading to vast socioeconomic disparities in reopening. These disparities were mainly explained by public schools, which depended on municipal majors' decisions.

Overall, we found that, by the end of 2022, the pandemic-driven losses were higher in high-effectiveness schools. These losses were more pronounced as schools reopened later and students' post-pandemic attendance decreased

We examined how the COVID-19 pandemic-associated learning losses varied according to schools' pre-pandemic effectiveness, i.e., the value they added above the expected students' learning based on their socioeconomic level