The Effect of School Rank on Personality Traits

Laura Pagani, Simona Comi and Federica Origo ()

Journal of Human Resources, 2021, vol. 56, issue 4, 1187-1225

Abstract: We study the effect of classroom rank on high school students’ Big Five personality traits. We exploit idiosyncratic differences in the class distribution of earlier academic achievement. Such differences generate quasi-random variation in class rank for students with the same initial achievement. We find a positive and sizeable effect of rank on conscientiousness, but we find no effects on the other four personality traits. A thorough analysis of the mechanism suggests that the primary channels through which class rank improves conscientiousness are perceived ability and academic motivation.

JEL-codes: I21 I24 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
Note: DOI: 10.3368/jhr.56.4.1218-9916R2
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:uwp:jhriss:v:56:y:2021:i:4:p:1187-1225

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