Addressing Students’ Educational Aspirations Through Information Provision: Evidence From Ecuador

Abstract

This study explores the gaps in educational aspirations in a sample of public high school students in Ecuador and runs a randomized controlled trial to investigate the impact of information about the returns and costs of education on their aspirations to high school, technical training, and university. The results show that the gaps in university aspirations are the greatest among students with low self-confidence levels and among students whose parents lack higher education. Furthermore, the provision of information had no impact on university aspirations on average, but a statistically significant impact on reducing high school aspirations in favor of technical education. Our analysis also highlights the importance of addressing behavioral traits as predominant drivers of aspirations. Finally, it supports the literature showing that mere information provision may barely work to close aspirational gaps, yet it can help disadvantaged students by offering them an alternative post-secondary education degree that might not be familiar to them otherwise.