| This dissertation studies how different education funding regimes affect incentives and equilibrium allocations in competitive markets served by heterogenous private providers. Chapter 1 develops the main theoretical model. The model provides a tractable framework to analyze the importance of different sources of heterogeneity for the equilibrium allocations and outcomes in competitive education markets. The model also discusses the interactions between private schools with different objective functions, and how those interactions are affected by the way in which education is funded. Chapter 2 provides empirical content to the theoretical framework, by calibrating a stylized version of the model to the data for Chile's education market, which has operated with education vouchers since 1980 and where 50% of students are enrolled in private schools. |
