Achievement Rank Affects Performance and Major Choices in College

Arbeitspapier

This paper studies how a student's ordinal rank in a peer group affects performance and specialisation choices in university. By exploiting data with repeated random assignment of students to teaching sections, we find that a higher rank increases performance and the probability of choosing related follow-up courses and majors. We document two types of dynamic effects. First, earlier ranks are less important than later ranks. Second, responses to rank changes are asymmetric: improvements in rank raise performance, while decreases in rank have no effect. Rank effects partially operate through students' expectations about future grades.

Angaben zum Objekt

• Sprache: Englisch

Verweise und Beziehungen

• Erschienen in: Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 14320

Klassifikation und Themen

• Klassifikation: Wirtschaft ; Analysis of Education ; Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination ; Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
• Thema: rank ; social comparisons ; higher education ; peer effects

Beteiligte, Orts- und Zeitangaben

• Ereignis: Geistige Schöpfung
• (wer): Elsner, Benjamin ; Isphording, Ingo E. ; Zölitz, Ulf
• Ereignis: Veröffentlichung
• (wer): Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
• (wo): Bonn
• (wann): 2021

Weitere Informationen

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/236351
• Letzte Aktualisierung: 10.03.2025, 11:45 MEZ