best viewed as the end result of a learning process. We find that students enter college as open to a major in math or … science as to any other major group, but that a large number of students move away from math and science after realizing that … because students realize that their ability in math/science is lower than expected rather than because students realize that …

Using birth certificates matched to schooling records for Florida children born 1992-2002, we assess whether family … gap in neonatal health. We conclude that the gender gap among black children is larger than among white children in … substantial part because black children are raised in more disadvantaged families …

a regression discontinuity design, we document how a third grade retention policy affects both the target children and … their younger siblings. The policy improves test scores of both children while the spillover is up to 30% of the target … child effect size. The effects are particularly pronounced in families where one of the children is disabled, for boys, and …

Taking advantage of unique longitudinal data, we provide the first characterization of what college students believe at … of why students hold the initial beliefs about majors that they do. The data collection and analysis are based directly … that students enter school quite optimistic/interested about obtaining a science degree, but that relatively few students …

college exposure to female instructors and students, consistent with a wider role for women's colleges in increasing female …

-semester students, although instructors continued to record letter grades. We identify the causal effect of the policy on course choice … and performance, using a regression-discontinuity-in-time design. Students shifted to lower-grading STEM courses in the … first semester, but did not increase their engagement with STEM in later semesters. Letter grades of first-semester students …

employ data from the universe of children born in Florida between 1994 and 2002 and in Denmark between 1990 and 2001, which …