Achievement Rank Affects Performance and Major Choices in College

Benjamin Elsner, Ingo E. Isphording and Ulf Zölitz

CRC TR 224 Discussion Paper Series from University of Bonn and University of Mannheim, Germany

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: rank; social comparisons; higher education; peer effects (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I21 J16 J31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 55
Date: 2021-04
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (43)

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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)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bon:boncrc:crctr224_2021_294

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