This paper develops and estimates a dynamic model, which integrates value‐added and school‐choice models, to evaluate grade‐by‐grade and cumulative impacts of the Mexican Prospera conditional cash transfer (CCT) program on educational achievement. The empirical application advances the...

Using a sample of Australians who display high rates of early school-leaving, we compare the trajectories of respondents who left school at each incremental age between 14 and 17 with respondents who left at 18 years old or more, in terms of homelessness, incarceration, substance use and mental...

We study the effect of having high socioeconomic status (SES) peers on pupils' wellbeing, absence rate, and academic performance in elementary school. We compare pupils in the same school who started school in different years and, consequently, were exposed to different shares of high-SES peers....

Christa Denault (2023) examines the effect of a policy implemented in Louisiana that mandates that high school students are required to complete the FAFSA as part of the requirements to graduate high school. In her preferred specification (equation (1)), she used a two-way fixed effects...

This paper investigates the long- and short-term effects of geographical proximity to universities on educational attainment in Nigeria. We relate individuals level of schooling obtained from three rounds of the Nigeria's Living Standard Measurement Survey (LSMS) to spatial distance to...

This study examines the impact of increasing the Minimum Legal Drinking Age (from 16 to 18 years old) on the academic performance, substance use, and peer behaviours of teenagers. Using a difference-in-discontinuities design, we exploit regional MLDA reforms in Spain and PISA data to identify...

Using Israeli data, we establish that the interaction between school entrance age (SEA) policy and youth employment laws increases high school dropout rates among students who start school older - particularly males. This is because these students become eligible for employment at an earlier...

Campus closures due to COVID19 created uneven student-level exposures to the challenges of home-based virtual learning. Using university administrative data, and exogenous class-level differences in pre-pandemic on-campus housing assignments for parallel trend validation, this paper unpacks...

Using a sample of disadvantaged Australians, we compare trajectories of those who left school before 18 with those who left later, in terms of homelessness, incarceration, substance use and mental health issues. We estimate a staggered difference-in-difference to account for heterogenous...

We examine teachers’ perceptions toward top performing students and their role model influence on others in an online survey-based experiment. We randomly expose teachers to profiles of top performing students and inquire whether they consider the profiled top performers to be influential role...

The CILS4NEPS project combined and harmonized panel data from the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Survey in Four European Countries (CILS4EU) and Starting Cohort 4 of the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS SC4). This unlocks additional research potential beyond the scope of both...

We examine teachers’ perceptions toward top performing students and their role model influence on others in an online survey-based experiment. We randomly expose teachers to profiles of top performing students and inquire whether they consider the profiled top performers to be influential role...

The paper analyzes the effects of two kinds of college education subsidies: unconditional tuition discounts and targeted forgiveness of student loans on student college enrollment and completion or dropout decisions. We focus on students’ imperfect knowledge of their academic ability at the...

The Deferred Acceptance (DA) mechanism can generate inefficient placements. Although Pareto-dominant mechanisms exist, it remains unclear which and how many students could improve their DA assignment. We characterize the set of unimprovable students and show that it includes those unassigned or...

This study examines the prevalence of permanent school closures before and after the COVID-19 pandemic and their association with enrollment declines. Utilizing data from the Common Core of Data between 2013-14 and 2023-24, the analysis reveals a downward trend in closure rates, with significant...

State governments provide grants to students to subsidize college attendance. In response, colleges can adjust their tuition, aid policies, and admission standards, affecting equilibrium enrollment and pass-through of aid to students. To quantify demand- and supply-side responses, I develop a...

Does relaxing strict school discipline improve student achievement, or lead to classroom disorder? We study a 2012 reform in New York City public middle schools that eliminated suspensions for non-violent, disorderly behavior. Math scores of students in more-affected schools rose by 0.05...

Adolescents' educational choices are shaped by their peers. Using administrative data covering the entire population of Italian middle school students, we show that exposure to high-achieving male peers in math reduces the likelihood that girls choose a scientific high school track. To...

This study examines the effects of timing of exposure to the Asian financial crisis on higher education and early labor market outcomes. We estimate a generalized difference-in-differences model exploiting variation in age at exposure and regional severity of the recession in South Korea. Using...

This study examines the effects of remedial courses in high school on postsecondary outcomes using a regression discontinuity design and explores the mechanisms behind these effects. I find that being placed in the remedial schedule and taking an additional remedial course in high school reduces...

This study examines the impact of increasing the Minimum Legal Drinking Age (from 16 to 18 years old) on the academic performance, substance use, and peer behaviours of teenagers. Using a difference-in-discontinuities design, we exploit regional MLDA reforms in Spain and PISA data to identify...

A human capital model is used to examine students' willingness to borrow to pay for a college degree. We hypothesize direct costs of education and education goals to be positively associated and current income and alternative financial support to be negatively associated with willingness to...

We run a field experiment in which we provide information to students about job opportunities and hourly wages of occupations they are interested in. The experiment takes place within a widely-used career orientation program in the Netherlands, and involves 28,186 pre-vocational secondary...

This paper studies the impact of television on student achievement in Italy, utilizing the staggered rollout of digital television across Italian provinces to isolate television's influence. Using data from national educational assessments (INVALSI) collected in four grades from 2009 to 2012, we...

This study examines how financial aid shapes post-secondary enrollment and persistence among senior high school graduates, challenging assumptions in traditional human capital theory. While the theory posits that reducing financial barriers increases participation, findings suggest a more...

We evaluate the First-Generation Graduate Scholarship scheme implemented in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, which waives tuition fees for first-generation college students in technical education. Using household survey data in difference-in-differences (DiD) and synthetic DiD frameworks, we find...

This paper examines internal migration from a lifetime perspective using unique data on detailed residential biographies of individuals born in Germany between 1944 and 1986. We first describe life-cycle patterns of internal mobility and potential differences across space, time, and...

This study examines the consequences of college students pursuing degree programs that do not align with the tracks and strands they selected in senior high school. We utilize a unique dataset that links admissions and enrollment records from the University of the Philippines Diliman to...

We identify the impacts of a student's timetable on their attendance, study time and academic achievement using administrative and survey data from a public UK university across a broad range of degree programmes using quasi-random assignment of students to their timetables. Timetable measures...

Using the universe of high school and college admissions data in Croatia, we geocoded nearly half a million students' residential addresses to investigate how their college and major choices are influenced by older neighbors and peers. Using an RDD to exploit time and program variation in...

Underrepresented minority (URM) college students have been steadily earning degrees in relatively less-lucrative fields of study since the mid-1990s. A decomposition reveals that this widening gap is principally explained by rising stratification at public research universities, many of which...