TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Osikominu, Aderonke
AU  - Pfeifer, Gregor
AU  - Strohmaier, Kristina
        TI  - The Effects of Free Secondary School Track Choice: A Disaggregated Synthetic Control Approach
        PY  - 2021/Jan/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 14033
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/publications/dp14033
        AB  - We exploit a recent state-level reform in Germany that granted parents the right to decide on the highest secondary school track suitable for their child, changing the purpose of the primary teacher's recommendation from mandatory to informational. Applying a disaggre-gated synthetic control approach to administrative district-level data, we find that transition rates to the higher school tracks increased substantially, with stronger responses among children from richer districts. Simultaneously, grade repetition in the first grades of second-ary school increased dramatically, suggesting that parents choose school tracks also to align with their own aspirations – resulting in greater misallocation of students.
        KW  - school tracking
KW  - student performance
KW  - synthetic control method
KW  - treatment effect distributions
KW  - treatment effect heterogeneity
        ER  -