School Brown Bag: Pilar Beneito Lopez (Visitor)

This seminar has been re-scheduled to Wednesday 11th May  (previously Monday 9th May)

Title:  Better peers but worse rank position: The opportunity cost of joining a selective group

Abstract:  The sharp downgrading of the relative position in the distribution of ability experienced by those just qualifying to enter a selective group may run counter to the intended positive effects of joining better peers. I exploit variation in admission cutoffs across different cohorts and types of business major programs within a same university to study the causal impact that joining a selective group has on the academic performance of marginal students. I first compare students just above and just below the admission cutoff using a regression discontinuity design, and then I analyse the impact of the ability rank on the academic performance of students at the threshold. I find that female students who are just above the cutoff (thus, low-ranked students in a high-ability group) underperform female students who just fail to gain entry to the selective group (thus, high-ranked students in a mixed-ability group). Conversely, I find much smaller or no significant effects among male students. I show that gender differences in the response of students to their ability rank position explain a large part of the differences found at the threshold.