A new GLO Discussion Paper using data from India reveals that enrolling in a selective college affects cognition, preferences and personality
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GLO Discussion Paper No. 591, 2020
Effects of Peers and Rank on Cognition, Preferences, and Personality – Download PDF
by Dasgupta, Utteeyo & Mani, Subha & Sharma, Smriti & Singhal, Saurabh
GLO Fellows Subha Mani & Utteeyo Dasgupta
Subha Mani 
Utteeyo Dasgupta
Author Abstract: We exploit the variation in admission cutoffs across colleges at a leading Indian university to estimate the causal effects of enrolling in a selective college on cognitive attainment, economic preferences, and Big Five personality traits. Using a regression discontinuity design, we find that enrolling in a selective college improves university exam scores of the marginally admitted females, and makes them less overconfident and less risk averse, while males in selective colleges experience a decline in extraversion and conscientiousness. We find differences in peer quality and rank concerns to be driving our findings.
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