assignment of students to sections. We find that students on average benefit from better-ability peers. Low-ability students … results. Analyzing students’ course evaluations suggests that peer effects are driven by improved student interaction rather … than adjustments in teachers’ behavior or students’ effort.<p> …

Banking reforms--that reduced interest rates--boosted college enrollment rates among able students from middle class … families. We define "able" students as those with learning aptitude scores in the top two-thirds of the U.S. population. We …

black students’ education levels in terms of years of schooling, while having a modest increase on white students’ years of …

colleges adopt a less demanding curriculum to accommodate the influx of low-ability students, benefiting them at the expense of … middle-ability students. In response to the reduced competitive pressure for middle-ability students, private colleges adopt … a more demanding curriculum to better serve their high-ability students, again at the expense of middle-ability students …

. Among students enrolled in the poorest third of schools, the effect is 7.3 percentage points. Smaller classes increase the … likelihood of earning a college degree by 1.6 percentage points and shift students towards high-earning fields such as STEM …