Signalling or quality improvement? The impact of institutional accreditation on employment and salaries of technical and vocational higher education graduates

Abstract The expansion of higher education has prompted countries to adopt policies, such as institutional accreditation, to safeguard quality. However, in Technical and Vocational Higher Education (TVHE), we know little about whether accreditation improves graduates’ labour-market outcomes. Using repeated cross-sections from Chile, this study employs a Difference-in-Differences (DiD) design, complemented by a Triple-Differences (DDD) specification and covariate balancing to enhance comparability across cohorts. There is no immediate average wage effect in the years closest to the policy. Wage gains appear in the long run, but they vary across sectors and across types of TVHE graduates. By contrast, the effect on employability is close to zero or slightly negative and weakly statistically significant. The results suggest that quality assurance can shape earnings, but the impact on employment may remain limited when sectoral conditions and labour-demand constraints predominate. The evidence informs the assessment of accreditation in Chilean TVHE and is relevant for countries facing similar challenges.