Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/235410 
Year of Publication: 
2021
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 9040
Publisher: 
Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute (CESifo), Munich
Abstract: 
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.
Subjects: 
rank
social comparisons
higher education
peer effects
JEL: 
I21
J16
J31
Document Type: 
Working Paper
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