Achievement Rank Affects Performance and Major Choices in College

Benjamin Elsner, Ingo Isphording and Ulf Zölitz

No 14320, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: 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.

Keywords: higher education; social comparisons; rank; peer effects (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I21 J16 J31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 57 pages
Date: 2021-04
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (38)

Published - published in: Economic Journal, 2021, 640 (131), 3182 - 3206.

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https://docs.iza.org/dp14320.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Achievement Rank Affects Performance and Major Choices in College (2021)
Working Paper: Achievement Rank Affects Performance and Major Choices in College (2021)
Working Paper: Achievement Rank Affects Performance and Major Choices in College (2021)
Working Paper: Achievement Rank Affects Performance and Major Choices in College (2021)
Working Paper: Achievement Rank Affects Performance and Major Choices in College (2021)
Working Paper: Achievement Rank Affects Performance and Major Choices in College (2021)
Working Paper: Achievement rank affects performance and major choices in college (2018)
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