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on Education |
| By: | Ofer Malamud; Andreea Mitrut; Cristian Pop-Eleches; Miguel Urquiola |
| Abstract: | We examine student, teacher, and peer perceptions of effort, ability, performance, and self-confidence in Romania’s highly tracked schools. We find that: (1) students just above a cutoff—tracked into high-achieving classes—have less favorable self-perceptions than those just below (“big-fish-little-pond” effects); (2) students perceive peers in their classes more favorably (“in-group bias”); (3) this bias is stronger in lower-achieving classes; (4) students perceive themselves more positively than others perceive them (“illusory superiority”); (5) this bias is stronger among lower-achieving students (“Krueger-Dunning effects”). In short, being tracked into lower-achieving classes does not appear to negatively affect self-perceptions. |
| JEL: | I21 |
| Date: | 2024–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:32892 |
| By: | Elizabeth Setren |
| Abstract: | School assignment policies are a key lever to increase access to high performing schools and to promote racial and socioeconomic integration. For over 50 years, the Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity (METCO) has bussed students of color from Boston, Massachusetts to relatively wealthier and predominantly White suburbs. Using a combination of digitized historical records and administrative data, I analyze the short and long run effects of attending a high-performing suburban school for applicants to the METCO program. I compare those with and without offers to enroll in suburban schools. I use a two-stage least squares approach that utilizes the waitlist assignment priorities and controls for a rich set of characteristics from birth records and application data. Attending a suburban school boosts 10th grade Math and English test scores by 0.13 and 0.21 standard deviations respectively. The program reduces dropout rates by 75 percent and increases on-time high school graduation by 13 percentage points. The suburban schools increase four-year college aspirations by 17 percentage points and enrollment by 21 percentage points. Participation results in a 12 percentage point increase in four-year college graduation rates. Enrollment increases average earnings at age 35 by $16, 250. Evidence of tracking to lower performing classes in the suburban schools suggests these effects could be larger with access to more advanced coursework. Effects are strongest for students whose parents did not graduate college. |
| JEL: | I20 I21 I23 I24 |
| Date: | 2024–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:32864 |
| By: | Binelli, Chiara (University of Bologna); Comi, Simona Lorena (University of Milano-Bicocca); Meschi, Elena (Università Ca’ Foscari di Venezia); Pagani, Laura (University of Milan Bicocca) |
| Abstract: | We study the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and its side effects on the academic achievement of students in a large university located in a northern Italian region severely affected by the pandemic. Thanks to the richness of our data, we can investigate for the first time the role of two specific channels: the increase in study time due to the exceptionally strict confinement measures adopted and the availability of class recordings. We use administrative data on four cohorts of students merged with original survey data. We adopt a fixed-effect difference-in-differences approach, where we compare the outcomes of students from different enrolment cohorts observed in the same semester of their academic career before and after the COVID-19 outbreak. We find a generalized positive effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on students' academic achievement in terms of both earned credits and GPA. We provide evidence that both increased study time and the availability of class recordings contributed to mediating this positive effect. |
| Keywords: | COVID-19, university education, distance learning, study time |
| JEL: | I23 I24 |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17173 |
| By: | Andrés Barrios Fernández; Christopher Neilson; Seth Zimmerman |
| Abstract: | Do elite colleges help talented students join the social elite, or help incumbent elites retain their positions? We combine intergenerationally-linked data from Chile with a regression discontinuity design to show that, looking across generations, elite colleges do both. Lower-status individuals who gain admission to elite college programs transform their children's social environment. Children become more likely to attend high-status private schools and colleges, and to live near and befriend high-status peers. In contrast, academic achievement is unaffected. Simulations combining descriptive and quasi-experimental findings show that elite colleges tighten the link between social and human capital while decreasing intergenerational social mobility. |
| Keywords: | elite universities, intergenerational mobility, human capital, social capital |
| Date: | 2024–08–28 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp2026 |
| By: | Lavado, Pablo (Universidad del Pacifico); Yamada, Gustavo (Universidad del Pacifico); Armas, Joaquin (Princeton University); Gonzalez, Mauricio (APOYO Consultoria) |
| Abstract: | We investigate the effects of a higher education reform on the labor market outcomes of college graduates in Peru. The cornerstone of this piece of legislation was a licensing process whereby a newly created higher education superintendency evaluated every existing university on minimum quality criteria to grant or deny their operating license. We find that, conditionally on being employed, the effects of this reform on the college graduates of universities that were granted (denied) the license were two: an effect of around 6.5% (-9%) on monthly wages and a less precisely estimated effect of approximately 4 p.p. (-3.5 p.p.) on the probability of being formally employed. Our work provides evidence of the existence of winners and losers as a consequence of this ambitious higher education reform in Peru. |
| Keywords: | SUNEDU, university licensing, higher education reform, signaling effects |
| JEL: | I26 I28 J01 L14 |
| Date: | 2024–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17212 |
| By: | Bottan, Nicholas (Cornell University); Bernhardt, Dan (University of Illinois) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the impact of relative assessment on performance using a quasiexperiment: club-level swimming competitions in the US. By exploiting the agegroup structure, where swimmers are assessed against peers within their age group and experience a significant shift in relative standing upon aging up, we identify the causal effects of being assessed against better-performing peers. Using a regression discontinuity design, we find that swimmers, on average, swim significantly slower after aging up. This effect is similar across genders and is most pronounced among swimmers in the middle and top of the ability distribution, while those in the bottom third show no significant change. Our findings highlight the importance of considering the psychological impacts of relative assessment in competitive environments. |
| Keywords: | Relative Assessment ; Competition ; Performance ; Swimming JEL Codes: J53 ; I29 ; L83 ; M54 ; Z2 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wrk:warwec:1511 |
| By: | Hull, Marie C. (University of North Carolina, Greensboro); Yan, Ji (Appalachian State University) |
| Abstract: | While a large literature examines the immediate and long-run effects of public health insurance, much less is known about the impacts of total program exposure on child developmental outcomes. This paper uses an instrumental variable strategy to estimate the effect of cumulative eligibility gain on cognitive and behavioral outcomes measured at three points during childhood. Our analysis leverages substantial variation in cumulative eligibility due to the dramatic public insurance expansions between the 1980s and 2000s. We find that increased eligibility improves child cognitive skills and present suggestive evidence on better behavioral outcomes. There are notable heterogeneous effects across the subgroups of interest. Both prenatal eligibility and childhood eligibility are important for driving gains in the test scores at older ages. Improved child health is found to be a mediator of the impact of increased eligibility. |
| Keywords: | Medicaid, state children's health insurance program, health insurance, human capital, cognitive development, non-cognitive skills |
| JEL: | H51 I13 I38 J13 J24 |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17190 |
| By: | Alejandro Hirmas (University of Amsterdam); Jan B. Engelmann (University of Amsterdam) |
| Abstract: | Sustainability ratings help consumers understand the environmental impact of their purchases. Such ratings have increased the consumers’ sustainable choices in the electrodomestics and housing markets. In the particular case of energy labels, sustainable products are also associated with private benefits due to future cost reductions in energy expenditure. These results question the potential effectiveness of sustainability ratings for other products, such as food, where the link between environmental and private benefits is less clear. In two incentivized experiments (N=749), we study how consumers use sustainability ratings when these ratings are dissociated from private benefit, i.e. product quality. Participants chose between two products based on their quality and sustainability, which were presented in separate rating scales, alongside the products’ prices. Furthermore, we study how consumers integrate the usage of ratings with other information provided from other sources. Halfway through the experiment, we provide information regarding the underlying value behind the ratings. Using a between-subject design, we modify the information provided and analyze the impact of such information on the participants’ subsequent choices. Our findings indicate that even when sustainability ratings are not connected to the products’ quality, participants make use of them to decide which products to buy. We also find that participants underreact to new information, and make inefficient choices based on their decisions from before. Moreover, to track the participants’ attention and analyze potential heterogeneous usage of the information we use process-tracing methods. We find that participants show highly heterogeneous attention patterns, which are linked to differential weighting of the product’s attributes (price, quality, and sustainability) during the decision. While our information treatment has little effect on attention allocation to individual attributes, participants correctly recall the information at the end of the experiment. These results suggest that participants partially neglect new information, and anchor to their initial decision rules formed before the information treatments. |
| Keywords: | Attention, Sustainability ratings, conjoint analysis, information treatments, Mouselab |
| JEL: | D81 D83 D87 D91 |
| Date: | 2024–04–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tin:wpaper:20240024 |