This paper examines the patterns of pre-entry coaching and corresponding investment in private tutoring before and after the introduction of the Unified State Exam (the USE). We estimate the effectiveness of private tutoring in 2012 – a few years after the USE became a prerequisite for...

Despite the trends of massification of Russian higher education and recently introduced standardized entry exams, university applicants still may face barriers during the process of admission. As a result, they may be admitted to less selective universities, which generally offer low quality...

In the canonical regression discontinuity (RD) design for applicants who face an award or admissions cutoff, causal effects are nonparametrically identified for those near the cutoff. The impact of treatment on inframarginal applicants is also of interest, but identification of such effects...

In this paper, we analyse increasing inequalities in French students’ cognitive skills during the 2000 decade, as France is the European country that experienced the strongest rise in performance variance at PISA tests. In particular, French educational inequalities increased due to a decline...

This paper examines the patterns of pre-entry coaching and corresponding investment in private tutoring before and after the introduction of the Unified State Exam (the USE). We estimate the effectiveness of private tutoring in 2012 – a few years after the USE became a prerequisite for...

In 2011, a large university in Tehran launched a policy of gender separation at classroom level without publicly announcing it beforehand. The current paper utilizes this natural experiment to identify the causal impact of participation in single-sex versus mixed classrooms on students'...

We use a reform that was recently implemented in Italy to investigate the effects on academic achievement of more stringent requirements for the admission to the next grade at upper secondary school. We study how such effects are mediated by changes in family and school inputs, and in the...

This paper analyzes the impact of student loans for higher education on enrollment, dropout decisions, and earnings. We investigate the massive State Guaranteed Loan (SGL) program implemented in Chile in 2006. Our empirical analysis is based on the estimation of a sequential schooling decision...

Using a counterfactual approach, this paper empirically investigates the impact of an educational programme recently introduced in the Province of Trento (North-East of Italy). The aim of the policy is to foster university enrolment of students from low-income families and to reduce inequalities...

We use a reform that was recently implemented in Italy to investigate the effects on academic achievement of more stringent requirements for the admission to the next grade at upper secondary school. We study how such effects are mediated by changes in family and school inputs, and in the...