TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Elsner, Benjamin
AU  - Isphording, Ingo E.
AU  - Zölitz, Ulf
        TI  - Achievement Rank Affects Performance and Major Choices in College
        PY  - 2021/Apr/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 14320
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/index.php/publications/dp14320
        AB  - This paper studies how a student's ordinal rank in a peer group affects performance and specialisation choices in university. By exploiting data with repeated random assignment of students to teaching sections, we find that a higher rank increases performance and the probability of choosing related follow-up courses and majors. We document two types of dynamic effects. First, earlier ranks are less important than later ranks. Second, responses to rank changes are asymmetric: improvements in rank raise performance, while decreases in rank have no effect. Rank effects partially operate through students' expectations about future grades.
        KW  - higher education
KW  - social comparisons
KW  - rank
KW  - peer effects
        ER  -