Are universities the best alternative for a professional degree? Chilean evidence

In this article we question the notion that professional institutes cool out their students, disabling their admission to university. In order to do so we correct several methodological problems of previous studies that compares universities and professional institutes. Specifically, we compare programs given simultaneously by both institutions and real cohorts instead of artificial ones are used. Our results refute the evidence available which suggests a relative dominance of universities over professional programs. An interesting result obtained is that controlling for the quality of the students received, graduates from professional programs exhibit between 4% and 31% higher incomes than their peers from universities.