Alphabetical Order Effects in School Admissions

Stepan Jurajda and Daniel Münich

CERGE-EI Working Papers from The Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education - Economics Institute, Prague

Abstract: If school admission committees use alphabetically sorted lists of applicants in their evaluations, one's position in the alphabet according to last name initial may be important in determining access to selective schools. In Jurajda and Münich (2010) we provided evidence consistent with this hypothesis based on graduation exams taken in grade 13 in the Czech Republic: 'Z' students in selective schools had higher exam scores than 'A'.students. In this paper, we use the TIMSS&PIRLS test scores of 4th graders and the PISA test scores of 8th and 9th graders in the Czech Republic to provide evidence on how the alphabetical sorting outcome we uncovered earlier arises during early tracking into selective schools. Using the PISA data, we also provide similar evidence for Denmark.

Keywords: admissions; alphabetical order; order effects; early tracking (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H49 I29 J78 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu, nep-tra and nep-ure
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