DOES THE EFFECT OF ACCESS TO HIGHER ACHIEVING SCHOOLS DIFFER BY SES? EVIDENCE FROM A REGRESSION DISCONTINUITY DESIGN

Abstract

Going to a better school is often associated with better educational and life outcomes for students. However, students at the margin of admission may experience lower self-esteem and confidence as a result of occupying a lower ordinal rank if they decide to attend a better school. This is especially so for students who come from households with low socio-economic status (SES). Using a dataset from Pop-Eleches and Urquiola (2013) in “Going to a Better School: Effects and Behavioural Responses”, this paper provides novel evidence on how the effects of access to a better school on students’ behavioural responses differ by household SES. By using a regression discontinuity design, I find that that students with low socio-economic status at the margin of admission are more likely to experience poorer self-perceptions of their academic rank relative to their peers and more frequent negative interactions with their peers as a result of access to a better school, with no such effect observed for high SES students.