This article studies peer effects on the decision to enroll at university. To determine the social influence of peers, we use a measure encompassing the two major dimensions of social influence in ...the classroom: the ability and capacity of peers to exchange information about study options. This paper uses French administrative data on the universe of first year applicants to a single university over seven consecutive cohorts. We exploit idiosyncratic variations in the proportion of peers advised to change their educational choice. We find that our variable of interest has a small but negative and significant effect on the individual decision to attend university and observe stronger peer effects among groups of students of similar gender or socio-economic background. We also find a weaker impact of the proportion of peers advised to change their educational choice on the individuals of higher level of academic ability.
This paper analyzes the relationship between income inequality and inequality of opportunities for income acquisition in nine developed countries during the 1990s. Equality of opportunity is defined ...as the situation where income distributions conditional on social origin cannot be ranked according to stochastic dominance criteria. We measure social origin by parental education and occupation and use the database built by Roemer et al. (2003). Stochastic dominance is assessed using nonparametric statistical tests. Our results indicate strong disparities in the degree of equality of opportunity across countries and a strong correlation between inequality of outcomes and inequality of opportunity. The U.S. and Italy show up as the most unequal countries in terms of both outcome and opportunity. At the opposite extreme, income distributions conditional on social origin are almost the same in Scandinavian countries even before any redistributive policy. We complement the ordinal comparison by resorting to an original scalar “Gini” index of opportunities, which can be decomposed into a risk and a return component. In our sample, inequality of opportunity is mostly driven by differences in mean income conditional on social origin, and differences in risk compensate the return element in most countries.
This paper measures the effect of a policy implemented in France in 2009 advising students on their field of study at university. Applicants receive reviews from universities on their chances of ...graduating, which are determined relative to their numerical grades in high-school. To measure the causal impact of the reviews on the choice of their field of study, we compare students with similar high-school numerical grades but different reviews in a regression discontinuity framework. From a database of first year undergraduate applicants, we estimate that receiving a positive signal in a given field of study has little impact on the probability of registration, while receiving a negative signal in a given field decreases the proportion of students enrolling in this field by 14 percentage points.
•High-school students receiving negative feedback on enrollment choices are 14% less likely to register in this field.•High-school students receiving positive feedback on enrollment choices do not change the enrollment decisions.•Students from non-Econ. Major, and those living further away are more affected by the feedback their receive.
We measure inequality of opportunity for earnings acquisition in the U.S. between 1968 and 2001. Following recent theories of social justice, earnings determinants are divided into two parts:
...Circumstances
, which are characteristics outside individual control and
effort
representing factors impacting earnings but under individuals’ responsibility. Equality of opportunity requires that inequality of circumstances must be corrected while differences of effort must remain unaltered. Circumstances are represented by parental education and occupation, ethnic origin, place of birth and age. Effort is modeled with schooling choices and labour supply decisions. Using the PSID from 1968 to 2001, we provide two alternative assessments of inequality of opportunity using counterfactual distributions. The statistical framework is semi-parametric and builds on duration models. Finally, we conclude that inequality of opportunity represents between 20 and 43% of earnings inequality, but decreases all over the period reaching around 18% in 2001.
We offer a model of equality of opportunity that encompasses different conceptions expressed in the public and philosophical debates. In addition to
circumstances whose effect on outcome should be ...compensated and
effort which represents a legitimate source of inequality, we introduce a third factor,
luck, that captures the random factors whose impact on outcome should be
even-handed for equality of opportunity to be satisfied. Then, we analyze how the various definitions of equality of opportunity can be empirically identified, given data limitations and provide testable conditions. Definitions and conditions resort to standard stochastic dominance tools. Lastly, we develop an empirical analysis of equality of opportunity for income acquisition in France over the period 1979–2000 which reveals that the degree of inequality of opportunity tends to decrease and that the degree of risk of income distributions, conditional on social origin, appears very similar across all groups of social origins.
We propose an original model of human capital investments after leaving school in which individuals differ in their initial human capital obtained at school, their rates of return and costs of human ...capital investments, and their terminal values of human capital at an arbitrary date in the future. We derive a tractable reduced-form Mincerian model of log earnings profiles along the life cycle that is written as a linear factor model in which levels, growth, and curvature of earnings profiles are individual specific. This provides a structural interpretation of results obtained in the empirical literature on the dynamics of earnings and acknowledges its limitations.
Cette étude mesure l’impact d’une réforme du système d’enseignement supérieur français qui vise à améliorer l’allocation des étudiants dans leur filière de formation à l’université. Depuis la mise en ...œuvre de cette réforme, les universités doivent informer les étudiants, au moment où ils s’inscrivent, de leurs chances de réussite à partir de leurs notes au lycée. Pour mesurer l’effet du conseil sur les choix d’orientation des étudiants, nous comparons ceux qui se portent candidats à différents UFR dans la même université, certains fournissant des conseils aux étudiants, tandis que d’autres non. Nous trouvons que parmi les étudiants qui reçoivent un avis négatif, la proportion de ceux qui décident de s’inscrire est réduite de 12 points de pourcentage.
This study assesses the impact of a French educational policy reform aimed at improving the match between students and their field of study at university. As part of this reform, upon applying for ...entry to an undergraduate degree course, universities inform students about their likelihood of succeeding based on their grades in high school. To examine the effect of the feedback they receive on students’ choices, we compare students applying to different departments within the same university, some of which implement the policy, providing candidates with feedback, whereas others do not. We find that among those receiving negative feedback, the proportion of students who decide to enroll is reduced by 12 percentage points.
Cette étude mesure l’impact d’une réforme du système d’enseignement supérieur français qui vise à améliorer l’allocation des étudiants dans leur filière de formation à l’université. Depuis la mise en œuvre de cette réforme, les universités doivent informer les étudiants, au moment où ils s’inscrivent, de leurs chances de réussite à partir de leurs notes au lycée. Pour mesurer l’effet du conseil sur les choix d’orientation des étudiants, nous comparons ceux qui se portent candidats à différents UFR dans la même université, certains fournissant des conseils aux étudiants, tandis que d’autres non. Nous trouvons que parmi les étudiants qui reçoivent un avis négatif, la proportion de ceux qui décident de s’inscrire est réduite de 12 points de pourcentage.
This study assesses the impact of a French educational policy reform aimed at improving the match between students and their field of study at university. As part of this reform, upon applying for ...entry to an undergraduate degree course, universities inform students about their likelihood of succeeding based on their grades in high school. To examine the effect of the feedback they receive on students’ choices, we compare students applying to different departments within the same university, some of which implement the policy, providing candidates with feedback, whereas others do not. We find that among those receiving negative feedback, the proportion of students who decide to enroll is reduced by 12 percentage points.
Informer les étudiants de leurs chances de réussite influe-t-il sur leur choix d’orientation ?
Cette étude mesure l’impact d’une réforme du système d’enseignement supérieur français qui vise à améliorer l’allocation des étudiants dans leur filière de formation à l’université. Depuis la mise en oeuvre de cette réforme, les universités doivent informer les étudiants, au moment où ils s’inscrivent, de leurs chances de réussite à partir de leurs notes au lycée. Pour mesurer l’effet du conseil sur les choix d’orientation des étudiants, nous comparons ceux qui se portent candidats à différents UFR dans la même université, certains fournissant des conseils aux étudiants, tandis que d’autres non. Nous trouvons que parmi les étudiants qui reçoivent un avis négatif, la proportion de ceux qui décident de s’inscrire est réduite de 12 points de pourcentage.
Hestermann Nina, Pistolesi Nicolas. Does the Provision of Information on their Skills Affect Students’ Enrollment Choices?. In: Économie & prévision, n°211-212, 2017. Evaluation des politiques publiques. Conférence AFSE-DG Trésor du 17 décembre 2015. pp. 177-193.
Informer les étudiants de leurs chances de réussite influe-t-il sur leur choix d’orientation ?
Cette étude mesure l’impact d’une réforme du système d’enseignement supérieur français qui vise à ...améliorer l’allocation des étudiants dans leur filière de formation à l’université. Depuis la mise en oeuvre de cette réforme, les universités doivent informer les étudiants, au moment où ils s’inscrivent, de leurs chances de réussite à partir de leurs notes au lycée. Pour mesurer l’effet du conseil sur les choix d’orientation des étudiants, nous comparons ceux qui se portent candidats à différents UFR dans la même université, certains fournissant des conseils aux étudiants, tandis que d’autres non. Nous trouvons que parmi les étudiants qui reçoivent un avis négatif, la proportion de ceux qui décident de s’inscrire est réduite de 12 points de pourcentage.
This study assesses the impact of a French educational policy reform aimed at improving the match between students and their field of study at university. As part of this reform, upon applying for entry to an undergraduate degree course, universities inform students about their likelihood of succeeding based on their grades in high school. To examine the effect of the feedback they receive on students’ choices, we compare students applying to different departments within the same university, some of which implement the policy, providing candidates with feedback, whereas others do not. We find that among those receiving negative feedback, the proportion of students who decide to enroll is reduced by 12 percentage points.
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