This paper provides evidence of the importance of liquidity constraints in a tuition-free post-secondary education setting in Colombia. We exploit exogenous variation in the relative cost of tuition-free vocational education from a nationwide cash transfer program. We show that eligibility for a USD 136 grant every other month increases enrollment by up to 12 percentage points. We also show that men with larger returns to education are more affected by the availability of grants, which is consistent with the presence of liquidity constraints. However, we do not find the same for women. This paper highlights the importance of non-tuition costs and discusses whether individuals under-invest in their human capital when free education is available.

本文提供了哥伦比亚免费高等教育环境中流动性限制重要性的证据。我们利用全国现金转移计划中免学费职业教育相对成本的外生变化。我们发现，每隔一个月获得 136 美元补助金的资格可使入学率增加多达 12 个百分点。我们还表明，教育回报较高的男性受助学金的影响更大，这与流动性限制的存在是一致的。然而，我们并没有发现女性也有同样的情况。本文强调了非学费成本的重要性，并讨论了在提供免费教育的情况下个人是否对其人力资本投资不足。