We assess whether international remittances affect Colombian household's expenditure composition and demand of education. We exploit the migratory wave that took place on late 90s due to one of the deepest crises in Colombian history, along with institutional barriers to migration, to identify the effect of remittances on expenditure composition. The empirical exercises find a positive effect over education, beneficiary households expending about 10% of total expenditure more in education than non beneficiaries. In addition although no effect was found on enrollment rates, we found an important effect on the probability of attending a private, rather that a public, educational institution. Such effect is on average 24% for individuals 5-30 years old, 50% for those attending secondary education, and 40% for those attending higher education. On the other hand, effects over consumption, investment and health expenditure, are nil. Finally, we find important effects of remittances on living standards of beneficiary households.

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We evaluate the impacts of attending a public university in Colombia on the academic achievement of graduates from higher education. Our measurement of academic achievement represents the progress made between the college entrance and graduation standardized test scores. We find that public Higher Education Institutions (HEI) improve student test scores in 11 of the 12 programs analyzed. The superiority of public HEIs relative to private ones suggests the need to promote greater regulation of the latter, and a review their current standards to help bridge the gap that currently exists in terms of the value added public HEIs have in comparison to the private ones. It also suggests that, at least in the short run, it could be socially beneficial to expand the public provision of some of the higher education public programs that added more value.

ResumenLa participación del estado en la formación para el trabajo (FpT) se justifica por fallas contractuales en el mercado laboral y consideraciones redistributivas. Este ensayo: i) caracteriza la oferta de programas de FpT en Colombia-educación media vocacional, formación profesional técnica y tecnológica, y formación complementaria-, ii) discute evidencia rigurosa disponible referente a su impacto y pertinencia, y iii) rescata, a partir de la evidencia, lecciones para el diseño de programas de FpT. Estas lecciones incluyen la efectividad de la financiación pública a la provisión privada relativa a la provisión pública directa, los méritos de los incentivos al desempeño y de la separación de funciones de financiación, provisión y regulación, y la importancia de currículos enfocados a competencias transversales no-rutinarias.Palabras clave: Formación para el trabajo; educación media vocacional; formación técnica y tecnológica; formación complementaria; Colombia.Códigos JEL: J24, M53.* Agradecemos de manera especial los aportes y las discusiones con Maurice Kugler sobre versiones preliminares de este capítulo. También agradecemos la excelente asistencia investigativa de Luis Omar Herrera, los comentarios de Roberto Angulo, Marcela Eslava, Hugo López, Armando Montenegro, Carmen Pagés, de los participantes en el seminario de la Misión para la Movilidad Social y la Equidad y las múltiples conversaciones con Armando Montenegro y Marcela Meléndez que sirvieron para orientar y enriquecer este estudio. Este estudio fue financiado por el Departamento Nacional de Planeación a través del contrato No. 665-12. Los resultados, interpretaciones y conclusiones son a título personal de los autores y no representan necesariamente las opiniones del Departamento Nacional de Planeación, RAND Corporation, Banco de la República de Colombia y su junta directiva, o de las organizaciones del gobierno que aportaron información para su elaboración y sus directivos. Los errores restantes son exclusivamente de nuestra responsabilidad. † Economista Asociado, RAND Corporation, saavedra@rand.org. AbstractLabor market failures and redistributive concerns justify government intervention in job training provision. This essay: i) characterizes the supply of job training programs in Colombia-vocational schooling, technical and technological postsecondary programs and complementary short courses-, ii) discusses available rigorous evidence on its impacts and alignment with labor market demands, and iii) highlights, based on available evidence, lessons for improved program design. These lessons include the relative effectiveness of public financing of private provision vis-à-vis direct public provision, the merits of incorporating performance incentives and of separating financing, provision and regulatory roles, and the importance of a curricular focus on cross-cutting non-routine type skills.

We provide evidence on the long-run impact of vouchers for private secondary schools, evidence collected twenty years after students applied for the vouchers. Prior to the voucher lottery, students applied to either an academic or vocational secondary school, an important mediating factor in the vouchers' impacts. We find strong tertiary education and labor market effects for those students who applied to vocational schools with almost no impact on those who applied to academic schools. The labor market gains for vocational students are strongest at the top of the distribution and null at the bottom of the distribution. We find additional longrun impacts on consumption, and teen-age fertility. The expected net present value of benefits to participants and to taxpayers was large and positive implying that the program was welfare improving unless net externalities were large and negative.