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Effects of Peers and Rank on Cognition, Preferences, and Personality

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  • Dasgupta, Utteeyo
  • Mani, Subha
  • Sharma, Smriti
  • Singhal, Saurabh

Abstract

We exploit the variation in admission cutoffs across colleges at a leading Indian university to estimate the causal effects of enrolling in a selective college on cognitive attainment, economic preferences, and Big Five personality traits. Using a regression discontinuity design, we find that enrolling in a selective college improves university exam scores of the marginally admitted females, and makes them less overconfident and less risk averse, while males in selective colleges experience a decline in extraversion and conscientiousness. We find differences in peer quality and rank concerns to be driving our findings.

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  • Dasgupta, Utteeyo & Mani, Subha & Sharma, Smriti & Singhal, Saurabh, 2020. "Effects of Peers and Rank on Cognition, Preferences, and Personality," GLO Discussion Paper Series 591, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:glodps:591
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    2. Bottan, Nicholas & Bernhardt, Dan, 2024. "Small Fish in a Big Pool : The Discouraging Effects of Relative Assessment," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1511, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    3. Justine Hervé & Subha Mani & Jere Behrman & Ramanan Laxminarayan, 2024. "Food Coma is Real: The Effect of Digestive Fatigue on Adolescents’ Cognitive Performance," PIER Working Paper Archive 24-011, Penn Institute for Economic Research, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania.
    4. Hervé, Justine & Mani, Subha & Behrman, Jere R. & Nandi, Arindam & Sankhil Lamkang, Anjana & Laxminarayan, Ramanan, 2021. "Gender Gaps in Cognitive and Noncognitive Skills: Roles of SES and Gender Attitudes," IZA Discussion Papers 14132, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Justine Herve & Helene Purcell & Subha Mani, 2023. "Conscientiousness Matters: How does Personality affect Labor Market Outcomes?," Fordham Economics Discussion Paper Series dp2023-05er:dp2023-05, Fordham University, Department of Economics.
    6. Oliveira, Rodrigo & Motté, Henrique & Santos, Alei, 2023. "Do disadvantaged students benefit from attending classes with more skilled colleagues? Evidence from a top university in Brazil," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    College Quality; Peer Effects; Rank Concerns; Regression Discontinuity; India;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I23 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Higher Education; Research Institutions
    • C9 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments
    • C14 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Semiparametric and Nonparametric Methods: General
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration

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