%0 Report
        %A Elsner, Benjamin
%A Isphording, Ingo E.
%A Zölitz, Ulf
        %T Achievement Rank Affects Performance and Major Choices in College
        %D 2021
        %8 2021 Apr
        %I Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        %C Bonn
        %7 IZA Discussion Paper
        %N 14320
        %U https://www.iza.org/publications/dp14320
        %X 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.
        %K higher education
%K social comparisons
%K rank
%K peer effects