Institutional Change and the Expansion of Public Schooling: Evidence from the U.S. Colonization of Puerto Rico, 1898-1920

Gustavo J. Bobonis

Institutional Change and the Expansion of Public Schooling: Evidence from the U.S. Colonization of Puerto Rico, 1898-1920 makes use of Puerto Rico’s colonial experience under the United States during the early 20th century as a case study to investigate the relationship between democratization, governance institutions, and the emergence of public schooling in Latin America and the Caribbean.The experience of municipal governments in Puerto Rico during the early period of U.S. colonial rule (1898-1920) provides a unique set of circumstances to examine these relationships. By the end of the 19th century, municipalities across the Island had substantially diverged in terms of their de facto political and governance institutions, as well as in the degree of development of their public primary schools systems, mimicking the trajectories experienced across regions of the American continent. Following the transfer of colonial power in 1899, U.S. authorities introduced relatively egalitarian political, governance, and educational institutions—de jure American local institutions—across all municipalities in the Island. This project will study the extent to which these institutional changes impinged on jurisdictions which had mimicked the cross-continental experience throughout the 19th century. Using unique data on individual outcomes and municipal governments’ activities, such as the 1910 and 1920 Population Census Public-Use Micro Samples and administrative data on the organization and administration of local governments, I will examine whether these institutional changes helped close existing gaps in public school provision, primary school enrollment, and literacy rates across jurisdictions with varying degrees of political and economic inequality. The study will provide clear evidence regarding the roles played by political and governance institutions in explaining why the development of formal educational systems in Latin America and the Caribbean fell behind during the post-colonial period.

About Gustavo J. Bobonis

Gustavo J. Bobonis, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Toronto, received his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California at Berkeley in 2005. His research seeks to improve our understanding of the socio-economic and political determinants of individuals’ human development. His work can be broadly grouped in two fields: 1) basic research on the social and political determinants of private and public investments in individuals’ education and health, and 2) policy research on interventions intended to improve the socio-economic wellbeing of low-income families. His past research on neighborhood peer effects and on the influence of iron-deficiency anemia on schooling decisions in developing countries has been published in The Review of Economics and Statistics and The Journal of Human Resources. His work has been supported by fellowships and grants from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and the Annie E. Casey Foundation.