Working Paper: NBER ID: w22337
Authors: Mark Hoekstra; Pierre Mouganie; Yaojing Wang
Abstract: Despite strong demand for attending high schools with better peers, there is mixed evidence on whether doing so improves academic outcomes. We estimate the cognitive returns to high school quality using administrative data on a high-stakes college entrance exam in China. To overcome selection bias, we use a regression discontinuity design that compares applicants barely above and below high school admission thresholds. Results indicate that while peer quality improves significantly across all sets of admission cutoffs, the only increase in performance occurs from attending Tier I high schools. Further evidence suggests that the returns to high school quality are driven by teacher quality, rather than peer quality or class size.
Keywords: No keywords provided
JEL Codes: I21; I24; I26; J24
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Attending tier I high schools (I24) | Significant increase in peer quality (C92) |
| Attending tier I high schools (I24) | 0.16 standard deviation increase in CET performance (D29) |
| Quality of teachers (I21) | CET performance (D29) |
| Access to superior teachers at tier I schools (I24) | Performance gains (D29) |
| Peer quality at tier II schools (I23) | CET performance (D29) |
| Attending tier I high schools (I24) | Access to superior teachers (I24) |