This paper documents that grades vary significantly across Italian universities and degrees. We provide evidence suggesting that these differences reflect the heterogeneity of grading standards. A straightforward implication of this result is that university funding schemes based on students'...

It is well known that incumbent politicians tend to receive more votes when economic conditions are good. In this paper we explore the source of this correlation, exploiting the exceptional evidence provided by the Spanish Christmas Lottery. This is a unique lottery: 75% of Spaniards play,...

This paper examines the quality of the evaluation of 40,000 candidates to top civil service positions in the Spanish Administration. The evidence casts doubts on the design of the evaluation system. First, randomness abounds: candidates' success rates vary significantly depending on factors...