Ferreyra, Maria Marta

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Ferreyra, Maria Marta

Office of the Chief Economist for Latin America and the Caribbean

Fields of Specialization

Applied microeconomics, Economics of Education

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Office of the Chief Economist for Latin America and the Caribbean

Last updated: June 6, 2025

Biography

Maria Marta Ferreyrais a senior economist at the Office of the Chief Economist for Latin America and the Caribbean of the World Bank. Her research specializes in the Economics of Education. She has conducted research on school choice, accountability and finance in primary and secondary education in the United States (US); child care markets in the US; higher education in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC); and cities in LAC. Her research has been published in journals such as the American Economic Review, the Journal of Public Economics, and the American Economic Journal-Economic Policy. She is the lead author of At a Crossroads: Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean, and the co-lead author of Raising the Bar for Productive Cities in Latin America and the Caribbean. Prior to joining the World Bank, she served as a faculty member at the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University. She holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 11

Reclaiming the Lost Century of Growth: Building Learning Economies in Latin America and the Caribbean
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-06-06) Maloney, William F.; Cirera, Xavier; Ferreyra, Maria Marta
Latin America and the Caribbean has lost not decades but a century of growth due to its inability to learn—to identify, adapt, and implement the new technologies emerging since the Second Industrial Revolution. Superstars like Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay fell behind peers like France and Germany, while the entire region retrogressed in industries it once dominated and was unable to take advantage of new opportunities that propelled similarly lagging countries to high-income status. The report shows that this remains the case today as the region’s firms continue to lag in assimilating new technologies. However, it argues that Latin America and the Caribbean can reclaim the lost century by building learning economies, creating the human capital, institutions, and incentives needed to increase the demand for knowledge, facilitate the flow of new ideas, and foment the process of experimentation. "This outstanding book tackles one of Latin America’s greatest development puzzles: its failure to build high-income economies. The authors present a comprehensive theory placing knowledge—its creation, assimilation, and use—at the core of the explanation. Drawing on cutting-edge research, they meticulously document the empirical significance of each element and weave the threads together with remarkable precision, leaving no loose ends. In addition, they examine the missed opportunities that could have reshaped Latin America’s trajectory, advocating for a new knowledge-driven approach to industrial policy. A definitive reference on Latin American development, this book is essential reading for scholars, policy makers, and anyone invested in the region’s economic future." — Diego Comin, Professor of Economics, Dartmouth College "Nearly a century ago, Joseph Schumpeter highlighted the importance of the creation, application, and dissemination of knowledge for the prosperity of nations. And across the century that followed, numerous high-growth countries have confirmed his path to success. But, sadly, most of Latin America and the Caribbean has not. In this magnificent new book, readers will find data, information, theory, and arguments that explain why. More importantly, by examining the mechanics of knowledge assimilation and creation at the center of the “innovation machine” that drives growth, interested readers will find in this text a wide variety of tools and mechanisms adapted to our local conditions to boost the region’s economic prosperity." — José Miguel Benavente, Chief Executive Officer, Chilean Economic Development Agency (CORFO)
At a Crossroads: Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2017-05-02) Ferreyra, Maria Marta; Avitabile, Ciro; Botero Álvarez, Javier; Haimovich Paz, Francisco; Urzúa, Sergio
Higher education (HE) has expanded dramatically in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) since 2000. While access became more equitable, quality concerns remain. This volume studies the expansion, as well as HE quality, variety and equity in LAC. It investigates the expansion’s demand and supply drivers, and outlines policy implications.
What Makes a Program Good?: Evidence from Short-Cycle Higher Education Programs in Five Developing Countries
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-06) Dinarte Diaz, Lelys; Ferreyra, Maria Marta; Urzua, Sergio; Bassi, Marina
Short-cycle higher education programs (SCPs) can play a central role in skill development and higher education expansion, yet their quality varies greatly within and among countries. This paper explores the relationship between programs’ practices and inputs (quality determinants) and student academic and labor market outcomes. It designs and conduct a novel survey to collect program-level information on quality determinants and average outcomes for Brazil, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, and Peru. Categories of quality determinants include training and curriculum, infrastructure, faculty, link with productive sector, costs and funding, and practices on student admission and institutional governance. The paper also collects administrative, student-level data on higher education and formal employment for SCP students in Brazil and Ecuador and match it to survey data. Machine learning methods are used to select the quality determinants that predict outcomes at the program and student levels. Estimates indicate that some quality determinants may favor academic and labor market outcomes while others may hinder them. Two practices predict improvements in all labor market outcomes in Brazil and Ecuador—teaching numerical competencies and providing job market information—and one practice— teaching numerical competencies—additionally predicts improvements in labor market outcomes for all survey countries. Since quality determinants account for 20-40 percent of the explained variation in student-level outcomes, quality determinants might have a role shrinking program quality gaps. Findings have implications for the design and replication of high-quality SCPs, their regulation, and the development of information systems.
Entry and Competition in the Market for Short-Cycle Programs
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-06) Carranza, Juan Esteban; Ferreyra, Maria Marta; Gazmuri, Ana; Franco, Andrea
Short-cycle higher education programs form skilled human capital in two or three years and are eminently oriented to the labor market. While they could play a key role in the upskilling and reskilling of the workforce required for employment recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic, they will only do so if their supply responds fast and nimbly to the skill needs to local labor markets. This paper studies the entry, competition, and turnover of short-cycle higher education programs (SCPs) in Colombia. It documents a large expansion in the number of programs over the past fifteen years and studies the frequency of program entry and exit. It finds that the market for SCPs is more dynamic than the market for bachelor's programs, as it exhibits greater turnover or “churn" of programs, with a significantly higher rate of program entry and exit in a given year. Exploiting data on local productivity and employment by field of study, the paper finds that SCPs are more responsive than bachelor's programs to changes in local labor demand. Among SCP providers, private and non-university institutions respond the most to the local economy. SCP entry is deterred by the presence of competitors and responds to cost considerations, particularly among private institutions. For a given institution, exit and entry decisions are highly correlated within a field of study. While enrollment is sensitive to the number of competitors, institutions differentiate their product by tuition, field, and geographic coverage. Overall, the evidence suggests that SCPs might indeed respond fast and nimbly to the local labor market needs created by the pandemic.
Improving Preschool Provision and Encouraging Demand: Evidence from a Large-Scale Construction Program
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-10) Berlinski, Samuel; Ferreyra, Maria Marta; Flabbi, Luca; Martin, Juan David
This paper studies the impact of a preschool construction program and of two demand-side interventions in Cambodia. Within this context where other preschools are available, impacts are likely to differ between children who would have been enrolled in a preexisting preschool and those who would have stayed at home, with larger expected gains for the latter. The construction program caused enrollment to increase but demand-side interventions did not. After one year, the study measures intent-to-treat impacts on cognitive (0.04 standard deviations) and socio-emotional development (0.07 SD). The analysis also shows that the effect on children who would have stayed at home can be bounded (between 0.14 SD and 0.45 SD). With further assumptions these bounds can be tightened (0.14 SD – 0.35 SD) and under heavier assumptions, the study estimates this effect to be 0.19 SD, while the effect on children who would have benefited from another preschool is small and insignificant. These results are consistent with measures of preschool quality which imply that the newly constructed schooled only significantly improved infrastructure quality and not process quality. After two years of program implementation, most impacts become insignificant suggesting that the advantage provided by preschool quickly vanished, specifically once children enrolled in primary school.
Labor Market Effects of Short-Cycle Higher Education Programs: Lessons from Colombia
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-06) Galindo, Camila; Ferreyra, Maria Marta; Urzúa, Sergio
This paper estimates the heterogeneous labor market effects of enrolling in higher education short-cycle (SC) programs. Expanding access to these programs might affect the behavior of some students (compliers) in two margins: the expansion margin (students who would not have enrolled in higher education otherwise) and the diversion margin (students who would have enrolled in bachelor’s programs otherwise). These responses are quantified by exploiting local exogenous variation in the supply of higher education institutions (HEIs) facing Colombian high school graduates in an empirical multinomial choice model with several instruments. Estimates indicate that the presence of at least one HEI specialized in SC programs in the vicinity of the student’s high school municipality increases SC enrollment by 3.7–4.5 percentage points (40–50% of the SC enrollment rate). The diversion margin largely drives this effect. For female compliers, enrollment in SC programs increases formal employment relative to the next-best alternative. For male compliers, in contrast, it lowers formal employment and wages. These results should alert policymakers of the unexpected consequences of higher education expansionary policies.
In Search of Better Opportunities: Sorting and Agglomeration Effects among Young College Graduates in Colombia
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-10) Bacolod, Marigee; De la Roca, Jorge; Ferreyra, Maria Marta
This paper studies the dynamic sorting of workers prior to labor market entry that leads to skill differences across cities of different sizes, as well as its consequences on the estimation of agglomeration effects. Using rich administrative data for young, college-educated workers in Colombia, the paper shows that the most talented and best trained sort to big cities primarily because they attend college there and remain for work. The availability of colleges in an individual's high school city, parental resources, and high school city size are the most important determinants of the decision to move for college. The relatively less able remain in medium and small cities or move there for work after attending college in big cities. Pre-labor market sorting thus concentrates population and skill in big cities. As a result of this sorting, agglomeration effects are stronger for college than work city size, even after controlling for mediating factors such as individual ability or college selectivity.
Raising College Access and Completion: How Much Can Free College Help?
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-10) Garriga, Carlos; Ferreyra, Maria Marta; Martin, Juan David; Sanchez Diaz, Angelica Maria
Free college proposals have become increasingly popular in many countries, yet cross-country evidence indicates that higher college subsidies raise enrollment but not graduation rates. To capture the evidence and evaluate proposals, this paper develops and estimates a dynamic model of college enrollment, performance, and graduation. A central piece of the model, student effort, has a direct effect on class completion and an indirect effect mitigating the risk of performing poorly or dropping out. The model is estimated using rich student-level data from Colombia, and multiple free college programs are simulated. Among them, universal free college expands enrollment the most but does not affect graduation rates, thereby helping explain the evidence. Performance-based free college, in contrast, raises graduation rates yet has a smaller enrollment impact
The Contribution of Short-Cycle Programs to Student Outcomes: Evidence from Colombia
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-10) Dinarte Diaz, Lelys; Ferreyra, Maria Marta
Short-cycle higher education programs (SCPs), lasting two or three years, capture about a quarter of higher education enrollment in the world and can play a key role enhancing workforce skills. This paper estimates the program-level contribution of SCPs to student academic and labor market outcomes, and studies how and why these contributions vary across programs. This paper exploits unique administrative data from Colombia on the universe of students, institutions, and programs to control for a rich set of student, peer, and local choice set characteristics. Results indicate that program-level contributions account for about 60–70 percent of the variation in student-level graduation and labor market outcomes. Estimates show that programs vary greatly in their contributions, across and especially within fields of study. Moreover, the estimated contributions are strongly correlated with program outcomes but not with other commonly used quality measures. Programs contribute more to formal employment and wages when they are longer, have been provided for a longer time, are taught by more specialized institutions, and are offered in larger cities.
Raising the Bar for Productive Cities in Latin America and the Caribbean
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2018-06-12) Ferreyra, Maria Marta; Roberts, Mark
With more than 70 percent of its population living in cities, Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) is among the most urbanized regions in the world. Yet, although its cities are, on average, more productive than those elsewhere in the world, their productivity lags that of North American and Western European cities. Closing this gap provides LAC with the opportunity to raise living standards and join the ranks of the world’s richest countries. Raising the Bar: Cities and Productivity in Latin America and the Caribbean is about the productivity of cities in LAC and the factors that help to explain its determination. Based on original empirical research, the report documents the high levels of population density and other features of LAC cities that mark them out from those in the rest of the world. The report also studies the role of three key factors – urban form, skills, and access to markets – in determining the productivity of LAC cities. It shows that while excessive congestion forces and inadequate metropolitan coordination seem to be stifling the benefits of agglomeration, LAC cities benefit from strong human capital externalities. It also finds that, within individual LAC countries, cities are poorly integrated with one another, which contributes to large differences in performance across cities and undermines their aggregate contribution to productivity at the national level.