In recent years, many states in the U.S. have banned race-based affirmative action in college admissions. Public universities in these states have put more weight on socioeconomic factors, such as family income, to ensure a diverse student body without the explicit consideration of race. This...

This paper estimates the effects of a 2008 policy that eliminated tuition fees at public universities in Ecuador. We use a difference-in-differences strategy that exploits variation across cohorts differentially exposed to the policy, as well as geographic variation in access to public...

Demand for personalized online tutoring in higher education is growing but there is little research on its effectiveness. We conducted an RCT offering remote peer tutoring in micro- and macroeconomics at a German university teaching online due to the Covid-pandemic. Treated students met in small...

Social interactions have been shown to affect peoples' behavior in many settings. Yet little is known about their role in shaping higher education choices. We exploit discontinuous admission rules generated by Chile's centralized system of admission to postsecondary education to study spillovers...

We analyze the impact of expansion of higher education on student outcomes in the context of competition among colleges which differentiate themselves horizontally by setting curricular standards. When public or economic pressures compel less selective colleges to lower their curricular demands,...

This paper presents an exploratory analysis of the funding mechanisms for higher education across sixteen countries which builds upon existing work on educational institutions, educational outcomes and welfare regimes. We focus upon the current financing dilemma within the Irish higher education...

College admissions officers face a rapidly changing policy environment where court decisions have limited the use of affirmative action. At the same time, there is mounting evidence that commonly used signals of college readiness, such as the SAT/ACTs, are subject to race and socioeconomic bias....

This paper examines the impact of racial and low-income quotas on academic performance considering all public and private universities in Brazil. Using data from the National Examination of Student Performance (ENADE) conducted in 2012, the results indicate that there is no statistically...