Top of the Class: The Importance of Ordinal Rank

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Murphy, Richard; Weinhardt, Felix
• 署名单位: University of Texas System; University of Texas Austin; National Bureau of Economic Research; IZA Institute Labor Economics; Leibniz Association; Ifo Institut; Leibniz Association; DIW Berlin - Deutsches Institut fur Wirtschaftsforschung
• 刊物名称: REVIEW OF ECONOMIC STUDIES
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0034-6527
• DOI: 10.1093/restud/rdaa020
• 发表日期: 2020
• 页码: 2777-2826
• 关键词: relative performance feedback; self-concept; academic-achievement; school; teachers; place; resource; impacts; GENDER; CHOICE

摘要

This article establishes a new fact about educational production: ordinal academic rank during primary school has lasting impacts on secondary school achievement that are independent of underlying ability. Using data on the universe of English school students, we exploit naturally occurring differences in achievement distributions across primary school classes to estimate the impact of class rank. We find large effects on test scores, confidence, and subject choice during secondary school, even though these students have a new set of peers and teachers who are unaware of the students' prior ranking in primary school. The effects are especially pronounced for boys, contributing to an observed gender gap in the number of Maths courses chosen at the end of secondary school. Using a basic model of student effort allocation across subjects, we distinguish between learning and non-cognitive skills mechanisms, finding support for the latter.