HEALTH AND EDUCATION: AN IMPACT ANALYSIS APPLYING PROPENSITY SCORE MATCHING

Abstract

In this paper, we estimated the effect of the School Health Program (PSE) on the total failure, total dropout, and total age/grade distortion rates based on microdata. Data was withdrawn from the School Census and Educational Indicators, published by INEP (Brazilian National Agency for Education and Research), and the list of public schools agreed in 2017 with the PSE, provided by the Ministry of Education (MEC). The Propensity Score Matching method applied sensitivity analyses developed by Ichino, Mealli, and Nannicini (2008) and Oster (2017) and heterogeneous tests to deepen questions intrinsic to the theme. The findings appoint to a fall in the total rates of failure, dropout, and age-grade distortion in schools under PSE compared to schools not participating in the Program. Such effects are significant and stand out in the total failure rate. In addition, it was noted that the PSE causes a more significant impact on the initial grades of middle school (1st to 5th grades) compared to the final years (6th to 9th grades). The sensitivity analyses proposed by Ichino et al. (2008) and Oster (2017) confirmed the result’s robustness. Heterogeneous response tests applied in sample subgroups of teacher characteristics, class characteristics, and socioeconomic level of the school indicated a reduction in the analyzed rates, reinforcing the main result. All considered this study confirmed the hypothesis that schools with PSE agreements present a decrease in the total failure rate, total dropout rate, and total age/grade distortion rate. JEL Codes I00, I11, I18