Teacher's Pet: The Effect of Student Rank on Teacher Ability Beliefs (in submission)
(Click here for current draft)
This paper shows that teacher beliefs about a child's absolute academic ability are shaped by the child's relative classroom rank. Using administrative data on Dutch primary school students, I show that teachers are more likely to recommend the most (least) academically demanding track to students with a high (low) academic rank within their classroom, independent of actual academic achievement. As a result, higher-ranked students attend more academically prestigious high school tracks and are more likely to attend university. These findings are replicated using alternative data and methods. The effect cannot be attributed to differences in children's non-cognitive skills by rank.
Gender and Performance in Collaboration: Evidence From Student Teams (in submission)
With: Pilar García-Gómez, Teresa Bago d'Uva
(Click here for current draft)
Should gender composition be taken into account when forming teams? This paper examines how the output of teams completing tasks similar to those performed in many workplaces is influenced by their gender composition. Leveraging an economics bachelor course in which students are randomly paired together, we document large differences in performance grades by the gender make-up of the team. All-male teams are significantly outperformed by both mixed and all-female teams. These differences remain even when comprehensively controlling for the individual task aptitude of each of the group members, as well as other characteristics potentially relevant for teamwork that may vary by gender. Exploring mechanisms, we find suggestive evidence that women have greater preferences for cooperation, and - even when controlling for individual ability - exert higher effort levels in teams compared to men. This asymmetry appears to lead to members of mixed-gender teams reporting the worst team experiences.
What drives ability peer effects?
European Economic Review, 2021 (Working paper version)
With: Matthijs Oosterveen
This paper analyzes the importance of one commonly proposed mechanism potentially driving ability peer effects in the classroom: peer-to-peer social interaction. At a large European university, first-year students are randomly assigned to a year-long tutorial group and to one of two subgroups within their tutorial group. The university encourages social interaction within, and not between, these subgroups at the start of the year. Hence, each student can divide her tutorial peers into close and distant peers. We find spillovers on student performance originating from close peers only. Distant peers are unimportant. This implies that peer-to-peer social interactions drive peer effects.
Journal of Health Economics, 2020
With: Pilar García-Gómez, Eddy van Doorslaer, Tom Van Ourti
The Great Recession in Europe sparked concerns that the crisis would lead to increased income related health inequalities (IRHI). Did this come to pass, and what role, if any, did government transfers play in the evolution of these inequalities? Motivated by these questions, this paper seeks to (i) study the evolution of IRHI during the crisis, and (ii) decompose these evolutions to examine the separate roles of government versus market transfers. Using panel data for 7 EU countries from 2004 to 2013, we find no evidence that IRHI persistently rose after 2008, even in countries most affected by the crisis. Our decomposition reveals that, while the health of the poorest did indeed worsen during the crisis, IRHI were prevented from increasing by the relative stickiness of old age pension benefits compared to the market incomes of younger groups. Austerity measures weakened the IRHI reducing effect of government transfers.
Health disparities by income in Spain before and after the economic crisis.
Health Economics, 2016
With: Pilar García-Gómez, Eddy van Doorslaer, Tom Van Ourti
We apply a decomposition method to unravel the contributions of income growth, income inequality and differential income mobility across socio-demographic groups to changes in health disparities by income in Spain using longitudinal data from the Survey of Income and Living Conditions (SILC) for the period 2004–2012. We find a modest rise in health inequality by income in Spain in the five years of economic growth prior to the start of the crisis in 2008, but a sharp fall after 2008. The drop mainly derives from the fact that loss of employment and earnings has disproportionately affected the incomes of the younger and healthier groups rather than the incomes of the over 65s. This suggests that unequal distribution of income protection by age may reduce health inequality in the short run after an economic recession.