• About our Discussion Papers

    SEII Discussion Papers report on our work in progress. Discussion Papers include results from SEII's ongoing experimental and econometric evaluations of school effectiveness, our studies of the American income distribution, and our research on student-school matching.

    • August 21, 2018

    The Impact of a STEM-Focused Summer Program on College and Major Choices Among Underserved High-Achievers

    This study presents evi­dence that a STEM-focused sum­mer pro­gram for high-achiev­ing, under­served high school stu­dents that is held annu­al­ly at a selec­tive, pri­vate uni­ver­si­ty increas­es appli­ca­tion and enroll­ment rates at selec­tive uni­ver­si­ties and per­sis­tence in STEM. The study uses records from the pro­gram admis­sion process to reduce selec­tion bias by focus­ing on appli­cants who advanced to the penul­ti­mate stage of admis­sions and con­trol­ling for observ­ables using OLS and propen­si­ty score tech­niques. Results show the pro­gram triples the rate of enroll­ment at the host insti­tu­tion. Students are shift­ing into the host insti­tu­tion from less selec­tive uni­ver­si­ties on aver­age with no detectable dif­fer­ence in grad­u­a­tion rates, allay­ing fears of col­lege mis­match.

    Authors

    July 26, 2018

    Fiscal and Education Spillovers from Charter School Expansion

    Authors
    Matt Ridley and Camille Terrier

    March 20, 2018

    Can Successful Schools Replicate? Scaling Up Boston’s Charter School Sector

    Authors
    Sarah Cohodes, Elizabeth Setren, Christopher Walters

    January 8, 2018

    Impact Evaluation in Matching Markets with General Tie-Breaking

    Authors
    Atila Abdulkadiroglu, Joshua D. Angrist, Yusuke Narita, and Parag A. Pathak

    November 13, 2017

    How Well Do Structural Demand Models Work? Counterfactual Predictions in School Choice

    Authors
    Parag A. Pathak and Peng Shi

    October 16, 2017

    Do Parents Value School Effectiveness?

    Authors
    Atila Abdulkadiroglu, Parag A. Pathak, Jonathan Schellenberg, and Christopher R. Walters

    August 31, 2017

    The Impact of Price Caps and Spending Cuts on U.S. Postsecondary Attainment

    Authors
    David J. Deming and Christopher R. Walters

    June 19, 2017

    Maimonides Rule Redux: Does Class Size Affect Student Achievement?

    Authors
    Joshua D. Angrist, Victor Lavy, Jetson Leder-Luis, and Adi Shany

    March 30, 2017

    Minimizing Justified Envy in School Choice: The Design of New Orleans’ OneApp

    Authors
    Atila Abdulkadiroglu, Yeon-Koo Che, Parag A. Pathak, Alvin E. Roth, and Olivier Tercieux

    January 1, 2017

    Free to Choose: Can School Choice Reduce Student Achievement?

    Authors
    Atila Abdulkadiroglu, Parag Pathak, Christopher Walters