Tracking when Ranking Matters

Fanny Landaud and Eric Maurin

No 2023-12, THEMA Working Papers from THEMA (THéorie Economique, Modélisation et Applications), Université de Cergy-Pontoise

Abstract: This paper investigates the effect of grouping students by prior achievement into different classes in a context where students are preparing for the entrance exams to elite graduate programs offering a limited number of seats. We show that this policy has, on average, pos- itive effects on students’ performance and rankings. However, these improvements mainly concern students who were the strongest at the start of the preparation period, among whom children from privileged backgrounds are largely over-represented. Ultimately, the practice of grouping students by prior achievement into different classes increases inequalities in access to elite programs between children from different backgrounds.

Keywords: ability tracking; competition; higher education; inequalities. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I21 I23 I24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu and nep-ure
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Related works:
Working Paper: Tracking When Ranking Matters (2023)
Working Paper: Tracking When Ranking Matters (2022)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ema:worpap:2023-12

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