Catholic College Education and Poverty Reduction: Evidence from a Scholarship Program in Mexico

This proposal evaluates the causal impacts of Catholic higher education on income poverty, economic mobility, integral human development (IHD), and social responsibility. Conducted in partnership with Universidad Popular Autónoma del Estado de Puebla (UPAEP), the study focuses on the "Una Apuesta de Futuro" (UAF) scholarship program, which supports talented highschool graduates from rural and indigenous communities in Mexico. The program covers tuition, housing, and living expenses, and includes an immersive “life skills” training program and community-based projects.

Using a regression discontinuity design, the study will compare outcomes of 256 successful UAF applicants with those of non-selected applicants. The research will quantify impacts using survey data, relying on standard survey questions from the economic literature to measure income poverty, but will involve a significant interdisciplinary effort to design survey items to measure IHD and social responsibility. This effort will build on ongoing conversations about IHD and interdisciplinary research in the Keough School that took place at Notre Dame’s Kylemore Abbey in 2023.

The survey design methodology for IHD and social responsibility involves several steps: defining IHD and social responsibility, guided by philosophical insights; conducting meta-analyses of relevant ethnographies using machine learning; and developing survey items that minimize response bias. This approach ensures a robust and nuanced measurement of the study's key outcomes and will lead to a portable tool for IHD measurement in other contexts.

The study addresses gaps in the literature on the economic impacts of Catholic college education and the measurement of IHD. The findings will provide evidence for the effectiveness of Catholic education in promoting socio-economic improvement and holistic development, informing future donors, educational policymakers, and resource allocation.