Specialists or All-Rounders: How Best to Select University Students?

Pedro Luis Silva ()

No 15271, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: This paper studies whether universities should select their students only using specialised subject-specific tests or based on a broader set of skills and knowledge. I show that even if broader skills are not improving graduates' outcomes in the labour market, the university chooses to use them as a criterion for selection alongside the mastery of more subject-specific tools. Empirically, I exploit the variation between subject-specific and non-specific entrance exam sets on Portuguese students' large administrative dataset. My central finding is that, on average, universities with less specialised admission policies admit a pool of students who obtain a higher final GPA.

Keywords: job market; admission tests; university choice; general skills (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I23 I24 I28 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 76 pages
Date: 2022-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu and nep-lma
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Published - published in: Journal of Human Capital, 2024, 18 (2), 227–271

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Journal Article: Specialists or All-Rounders: How Best to Select University Students? (2024)
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