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HIGH SCHOOLS AND STUDENTS' INITIAL COLLEGES AND MAJORS
Author(s) -
Darolia Rajeev,
Koedel Cory
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
contemporary economic policy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.454
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1465-7287
pISSN - 1074-3529
DOI - 10.1111/coep.12390
Subject(s) - explanatory power , sorting , socioeconomic status , mathematics education , quality (philosophy) , higher education , index (typography) , persistence (discontinuity) , medical education , psychology , political science , economics , sociology , economic growth , computer science , medicine , engineering , demography , population , philosophy , epistemology , programming language , geotechnical engineering , world wide web
We use statewide administrative data from Missouri to examine the explanatory power of high schools over student sorting to colleges and majors at 4‐year public universities. We develop a “preparation and persistence index” (PPI) for each university‐by‐major cell in the Missouri system that captures dimensions of selectivity and rigor and allows for a detailed investigation of sorting. Our analysis shows that students' high schools predict the quality of the initial university, as measured by PPI, conditional on their own academic preparation, and that students from lower–socioeconomic status high schools systematically enroll at lower‐PPI universities. However, high schools offer little explanatory power over major placements within universities. ( JEL I2, J1)