Pr eferential College Admissions for the Disadvantaged: The Role of Social Mec hanisms and Subjective Beliefs” with F. Kosse and E. Miglino
Abstract:
Many countries use prefe rential college admissions to provide opportunities to talented disadvantag ed students. Exploiting a randomized experiment in Chile, we find that pref erential admissions increased college admissions and enrollments of the dis advantaged by a third, but admission effects were 60% lower than expected; this gap was more pronounced for high-ability students. Using linked survey -administrative data, we empirically test for social incentives, biases in subjective beliefs about ability, and disutility from preferential seats (s tigma) as potential mechanisms. We find support for the last two. We then d evelop and structurally estimate a dynamic model incorporating them. We fin d that stigma explains 36% of the admissions gap. Belief biases do not expl ain the gap on average, but they help explain its widening with ability: by distorting pre-college effort investments, widespread overoptimism compres sed (amplified) the admissions of high- (low-)ability students. Therefore, we identified frictions that can prevent preferential admissions from achie ving their intended objective.
DTSTAMP:20260529T195149Z DTSTART:20220519T043000Z DTEND:20220519T180000Z SEQUENCE:0 TRANSP:OPAQUE END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR