Year: 2018
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: An important but under-explored issue in student assignment procedures is heterogeneity in the level of strategic sophistication among students. Our work provides the first direct measure of which students rank schools following their true preference order (sincere students) and which rank schools by manipulating their true preferences (sophisticated students). We present evidence that our proxy for sophistication captures systematic differences among students. Our results demonstrate that sophisticated students are 9.6 percentage points more likely to be assigned to one of their preferred schools. Further, we show that this large difference in assignment probability occurs because sophisticated students systematically avoid over-demanded schools. (JEL D82, H75, I21, I28)
DOI: 10.1257/pol.20160132
Authors: Umut Dur, Robert G. Hammond, Thayer Morrill
Institution: North Carolina State University
Language: English
Subfield: Economics and Econometrics
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2787137348