Bobba, Matteo, Frisancho, Veronica and Pariguana, Marco (2016) Perceived Ability and School Choices: Experimental Evidence and Scale-up Effects. TSE Working Paper, n. 16-660, Toulouse

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Abstract

This paper explores an information intervention designed and implemented within a school assignment mechanism in Mexico City. Through a randomized experiment, we show that providing a subset of applicants with feedback about their academic perfor-mance can enhance sorting by skill across high school tracks. This reallocation effect results in higher completion rates three years post-assignment. We further integrate the experimental evaluation into an empirical model of school choice and educational out-comes to assess the impact of the intervention for the overall population of applicants. Information provision is shown to increase the ex-ante efficiency of the student-school allocation, while congestion externalities are detrimental for the equity of education outcomes.