Just presented online at the UOsaka lunchtime seminar. Always a pleasure to get many insightful comments — it’s my go-to place for feedback on work in progress!

Policies tying mobility scholarships and incentives to return could allow low-opportunity areas to outsource the education of their local labor force to higher education hubs. (5/5)

Eliminating moving costs benefits low-opportunity students by helping their migration to HE hubs, but at the cost of widening regional disparities. (4/5)

This study’s equilibrium model of the HE market, combined with a discrete location choice model, shows that the uneven distribution of colleges and mobility frictions account for one-third of the spatial education gaps. (3/5)

Using French data, the paper documents the uneven geographic distribution of higher education (HE) options and high moving costs, which lead to education gaps and skill sorting across space. (2/5)

Anaïs Fabre (Institute for Fiscal Studies) presents “The Geography of Higher Education and Spatial Inequalities” to identify the sources of spatial education gaps. (1/5)

The findings suggest that gendered differences in performance under pressure are not purely innate but can be shaped by educational environments. (5/5)

Exploiting quasi-random assignment of students within school districts, the study finds that the observed pattern is driven by male students in all-boys schools, who particularly underperform in high vs low stakes exams. (4/5)

In contrast, using the Korean Youth Panel Survey and administrative data, this paper shows that Korean males perform relatively worse than females in such settings. (3/5)

Prior studies suggest that male students generally outperform females in high-stakes exams with respect to their performance in low stakes exams. (2/5)

Caterina Calsamiglia Costa (Barcelona Supercomputing Center) presents “Can Single-Sex Schooling Shape the Gender Differences in Response to Pressure?” to investigate where gender differences in performance under high-stakes settings originate. (1/5)

Mechanisms behind HAIL’s success include improved match quality between recipients and selective universities, the program’s design that enables access to better college inputs, direct entry to four-year institutions rather than two-year colleges, and faster credit accumulation. (5/5)

It also accelerates bachelor’s degree completion by reducing the number of students taking five or six years to graduate, and increases bachelor’s degree completion at very selective schools. (4/5)

Using a school-level RCT to offer this scholarship, the study finds that HAIL increases UM attendance by shifting students' applications away from less-selective institutions. (3/5)

The program, HAIL, guarantees four years of tuition and fee coverage upon enrollment at the University of Michigan (UM) for high-achieving, low-income students. (2/5)

Susan Dynarski (Harvard University) presents “Experimental Evidence on the Effects of College Quality on Educational Outcomes”, examining how a scholarship program closes college quality gaps between low- and high-income students. (1/5)

Search costs in the marriage market are reflected in stronger college matchmaking effects among students who attend the same institution at the same time and those with more opposite-sex peers. (4/4)

Elite programs enable marginally admitted women to form elite households by earning more and matching with higher-earning elite partners while also reducing fertility. No earning or fertility effects are found for men. (3/4)

Using Norwegian data and an RD design on admission scores, the study shows that college admission, rather than selection based on underlying traits, drives strong assortativity by institution and field. (2/4)

Jack Mountjoy (University of Chicago, Booth School of Business) presents “College as a Marriage Market” to examine assortative marriage by college type and its economic consequences. (1/4)

Attending the Stone Centre Conference on Education and Inequality as part of the social media team. I’ll be posting updates on the cutting-edge research over the next two days. Stay tuned!