IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp15157.html

Tracking When Ranking Matters

Author

Listed:
  • Landaud, Fanny

    (CREST)

  • Maurin, Eric

    (Paris School of Economics)

Abstract

This paper investigates the effect of grouping students by prior achievement into different classes (or schools) in settings where students are competing for admission to programs offering only a limited number of places. We first develop a model that identifies the conditions under which the practice of tracking students by prior achievement increases inequalities between students that do not initially have the same academic background, such as may exist between students with different social backgrounds. We then test our model using new data on the competitive entrance exams to elite scientific higher education programs in France. We find that 70% of the inequality in success in these exams between students from different social backgrounds can be explained by the practice of tracking students by prior achievement that prevails during the years of preparation for these exams.

Suggested Citation

  • Landaud, Fanny & Maurin, Eric, 2022. "Tracking When Ranking Matters," IZA Discussion Papers 15157, IZA Network @ LISER.
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15157
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp15157.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Benjamin Elsner & Ingo E. Isphording, 2017. "A Big Fish in a Small Pond: Ability Rank and Human Capital Investment," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 35(3), pages 787-828.
    2. Erik Hanushek & Stephen Machin & Ludger Woessmann (ed.), 2011. "Handbook of the Economics of Education," Handbook of the Economics of Education, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 4, number 4, June.
    3. Antonovics, Kate & Black, Sandra E. & Cullen, Julie Berry & Meiselman, Akiva Yonah, 2022. "Patterns, Determinants, and Consequences of Ability Tracking: Evidence from Texas Public Schools," IZA Discussion Papers 15528, IZA Network @ LISER.
    4. David Card & Laura Giuliano, 2016. "Can Tracking Raise the Test Scores of High-Ability Minority Students?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(10), pages 2783-2816, October.
    5. Son Thierry Ly & Eric Maurin & Arnaud Riegert, 2020. "A Pleasure That Hurts: The Ambiguous Effects of Elite Tutoring on Underprivileged High School Students," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 38(2), pages 501-533.
    6. Arcidiacono, Peter & Kinsler, Josh & Ransom, Tyler, 2022. "Recruit to reject? Harvard and African American applicants," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    7. Nina Guyon & Eric Maurin & Sandra McNally, 2012. "The Effect of Tracking Students by Ability into Different Schools: A Natural Experiment," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 47(3), pages 684-721.
    8. Fanny Landaud & Eric Maurin, 2020. "Aim High and Persevere! Competitive Pressure and Access Gaps in Top Science Graduate Programs," Working Papers halshs-03065958, HAL.
    9. Olivier De Groote & Koen Declercq, 2021. "Tracking and specialization of high schools: Heterogeneous effects of school choice," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 36(7), pages 898-916, November.
    10. McCrary, Justin, 2008. "Manipulation of the running variable in the regression discontinuity design: A density test," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 142(2), pages 698-714, February.
    11. Figlio, David N. & Page, Marianne E., 2002. "School Choice and the Distributional Effects of Ability Tracking: Does Separation Increase Inequality?," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(3), pages 497-514, May.
    12. Julie Berry Cullen & Brian A Jacob & Steven Levitt, 2006. "The Effect of School Choice on Participants: Evidence from Randomized Lotteries," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 74(5), pages 1191-1230, September.
    13. Adam S. Booij & Edwin Leuven & Hessel Oosterbeek, 2017. "Ability Peer Effects in University: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 84(2), pages 547-578.
    14. Richard Murphy & Felix Weinhardt, 2020. "Top of the Class: The Importance of Ordinal Rank," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 87(6), pages 2777-2826.
    15. Almlund, Mathilde & Duckworth, Angela Lee & Heckman, James & Kautz, Tim, 2011. "Personality Psychology and Economics," Handbook of the Economics of Education, in: Erik Hanushek & Stephen Machin & Ludger Woessmann (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Education, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 0, pages 1-181, Elsevier.
    16. Susan Dynarski & CJ Libassi & Katherine Michelmore & Stephanie Owen, 2021. "Closing the Gap: The Effect of Reducing Complexity and Uncertainty in College Pricing on the Choices of Low-Income Students," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 111(6), pages 1721-1756, June.
    17. Esther Duflo & Pascaline Dupas & Michael Kremer, 2011. "Peer Effects, Teacher Incentives, and the Impact of Tracking: Evidence from a Randomized Evaluation in Kenya," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(5), pages 1739-1774, August.
    18. Betts, Julian R., 2011. "The Economics of Tracking in Education," Handbook of the Economics of Education, in: Erik Hanushek & Stephen Machin & Ludger Woessmann (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Education, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 7, pages 341-381, Elsevier.
    19. repec:hal:pseose:halshs-00754588 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Eric A. Hanushek & Ludger Wössmann, 2006. "Does Educational Tracking Affect Performance and Inequality? Differences- in-Differences Evidence Across Countries," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 116(510), pages 63-76, March.
    21. Bertoni, Marco & Nisticò, Roberto, 2023. "Ordinal rank and the structure of ability peer effects," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 217(C).
    22. Caroline M. Hoxby & Sarah Turner, 2015. "What High-Achieving Low-Income Students Know about College," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(5), pages 514-517, May.
    23. Damon Clark & Emilia Del Bono, 2016. "The Long-Run Effects of Attending an Elite School: Evidence from the United Kingdom," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 8(1), pages 150-176, January.
    24. Gregory Clark, 2015. "The Son Also Rises: Surnames and the History of Social Mobility," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 10181-2, December.
    25. Caroline Hoxby & Christopher Avery, 2013. "The Missing "One-Offs": The Hidden Supply of High-Achieving, Low-Income Students," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 44(1 (Spring), pages 1-65.
    26. Atila Abdulkadiroğlu & Joshua Angrist & Parag Pathak, 2014. "The Elite Illusion: Achievement Effects at Boston and New York Exam Schools," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 82(1), pages 137-196, January.
    27. Arcidiacono, Peter & Kinsler, Josh & Ransom, Tyler, 2022. "Asian American Discrimination in Harvard Admissions," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    28. Mark Hoekstra, 2009. "The Effect of Attending the Flagship State University on Earnings: A Discontinuity-Based Approach," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 91(4), pages 717-724, November.
    29. Booij, Adam S. & Haan, Ferry & Plug, Erik, 2016. "Enriching Students Pays Off: Evidence from an Individualized Gifted and Talented Program in Secondary Education," IZA Discussion Papers 9757, IZA Network @ LISER.
    30. C. Kirabo Jackson, 2010. "Do Students Benefit from Attending Better Schools? Evidence from Rule-based Student Assignments in Trinidad and Tobago," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 120(549), pages 1399-1429, December.
    31. Yingying Dong & Arthur Lewbel, 2015. "Identifying the Effect of Changing the Policy Threshold in Regression Discontinuity Models," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 97(5), pages 1081-1092, December.
    32. Alberto Abadie & Susan Athey & Guido W Imbens & Jeffrey M Wooldridge, 2023. "When Should You Adjust Standard Errors for Clustering?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 138(1), pages 1-35.
    33. Lefgren, Lars, 2004. "Educational peer effects and the Chicago public schools," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(2), pages 169-191, September.
    34. repec:dau:papers:123456789/7026 is not listed on IDEAS
    35. Wu, Jia & Wei, Xiangdong & Zhang, Hongliang & Zhou, Xiang, 2019. "Elite schools, magnet classes, and academic performances: Regression-discontinuity evidence from China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 143-167.
    36. Sarah R. Cohodes, 2020. "The Long-Run Impacts of Specialized Programming for High-Achieving Students," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 12(1), pages 127-166, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. de Roux, Nicolás & Riehl, Evan, 2022. "Do college students benefit from placement into higher-achieving classes?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 210(C).
    2. Serena Canaan & Pierre Mouganie & Peng Zhang, 2025. "The long‐run educational benefits of high‐achieving classrooms," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 44(4), pages 1347-1373, September.
    3. Christopher Belfield & Imran Rasul, 2020. "Cognitive and Non‐Cognitive Impacts of High‐Ability Peers in Early Years," Fiscal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 41(1), pages 65-100, March.
    4. Shi, Ying, 2020. "Who benefits from selective education? Evidence from elite boarding school admissions," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    5. Utteeyo Dasgupta & Subha Mani & Smriti Sharma & Saurabh Singhal, 2022. "Effects of Peers and Rank on Cognition, Preferences, and Personality," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 104(3), pages 587-601, May.
    6. Canaan, Serena, 2020. "The long-run effects of reducing early school tracking," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 187(C).
    7. David Card & Laura Giuliano, 2016. "Can Tracking Raise the Test Scores of High-Ability Minority Students?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(10), pages 2783-2816, October.
    8. Michela Carlana & Eliana La Ferrara & Paolo Pinotti, 2022. "Goals and Gaps: Educational Careers of Immigrant Children," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 90(1), pages 1-29, January.
    9. Maria Cotofan & Ron Diris & Trudie Schils, 2019. "The Heterogeneous Effects of Early Track Assignment on Cognitive and Non-cognitive Skills," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 19-038/V, Tinbergen Institute.
    10. Ribas, Rafael P. & Sampaio, Breno & Trevisan, Giuseppe, 2020. "Short- and long-term effects of class assignment: Evidence from a flagship university in Brazil," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    11. Anderson, Kathryn & Gong, Xue & Hong, Kai & Zhang, Xi, 2016. "Do selective high schools improve student achievement? Effects of exam schools in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 121-134.
    12. Oosterbeek, Hessel & Ruijs, Nienke & de Wolf, Inge, 2023. "Heterogeneous effects of comprehensive vs. single-track academic schools: Evidence from admission lotteries," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    13. Tim Klausmann, 2021. "Feedback in Homogeneous Ability Groups: A Field Experiment," Working Papers 2114, Gutenberg School of Management and Economics, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz.
    14. Pastore, Chiara & Jones, Andrew M., 2023. "Human capital consequences of missing out on a grammar school education," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    15. Utteeyo Dasgupta & Subha Mani & Smriti Sharma & Saurabh Singhal, 2017. "Cognitive, socioemotional, and behavioural returns to college quality," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2017-94, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    16. Armin Falk & Fabian Kosse & Pia Pinger, 2026. "Mentoring and Schooling Decisions: Causal Evidence," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 134(1), pages 366-396.
    17. Wennberg, Karl & Norgren, Axel, 2021. "Models of Peer Effects in Education," Working Papers 21/3, Stockholm School of Economics, Center for Educational Leadership and Excellence.
    18. Antonio Dalla-Zuanna & Kai Liu & Kjell G. Salvanes, 2025. "Pulled In and Crowded Out: Heterogeneous Outcomes of Merit-Based School Choice," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 17(4), pages 184-222, October.
    19. Ahmet Alkan & Sinan Sarpça, 2023. "Effects of High-Achieving Peers: Findings from a National High School Assignment System," CESifo Working Paper Series 10794, CESifo.
    20. Dasgupta, Utteeyo & Mani, Subha & Sharma, Smriti & Singhal, Saurabh, 2017. "Cognitive, Socioemotional and Behavioral Returns to College Quality," IZA Discussion Papers 10701, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • C13 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Estimation: General
    • C51 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric Modeling - - - Model Construction and Estimation
    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • I23 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Higher Education; Research Institutions
    • I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15157. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Mark Fallak (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaalu.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.