We study a unique grading policy at a large US public university allowing students to mask their letter grades into a … "Pass", after having observed their original grade. Using administrative transcript records, we find that female students … are substantially less likely to mask their grades than male students, even after accounting for differences in grades …

the Graduate PLUS loan program. Access to additional federal loans increased graduate students' borrowing and shifted the … in constrained students' persistence or degree receipt. We document that among programs in which a larger share of … graduate students had exhausted their annual federal loan eligibility before the policy change--and thus were more exposed to …

We analyze data from two universities that allowed students to conceal grades from their transcripts during the Covid … with real employers and a survey of impacted students. Our findings highlight how information-optional policies can create …

Schools often track students to classes based on ability. Proponents of tracking argue it is a low-cost tool to improve … learning since instruction is more effective when students are more homogeneous, while opponents argue it exacerbates initial … student ability, and schools operationalize tracking through the classification of students into categories such as gifted and …