How Effective are Female Role Models at Steering Girls toward STEM fields? Evidence from French High Schools, (with Thomas Breda, Julien Grenet & Clémentine Van Effenterre),
Les filles et les garçons face aux sciences : Les enseignements d'une enquête dans les lycées franciliens, (with Thomas Breda, Julien Grenet and Clémentine Van Effenterre)
Education & Formation Vol. 2 No. 97, pp. 5-29 (2018)
Designing Housing Benefits: An Application with French Data, (with Antoine Bozio, Malka Guillot and Lucile Romanello)
Gendered Teacher Feedback, Students' Math Performance and Enrollment Outcomes: A Text Mining Approach (with Pauline Charousset) [NEW DRAFT COMING SOON]
Abstract: This paper studies how student gender influences the feedback given by teachers, and how this affects the student’s performance in school. Using the written feedback provided to the universe of French high school students by their math teachers over a five-year period, we show that teachers use different words to assess the performance of equally able male and female students. Teachers highlight the positive behavior and encourage the efforts of their female students while, for similarly-performing males, they criticize the students for unruly behavior and praise them for their intellectual skills. To understand how this relates to the student’s subsequent educational outcomes, we then match these data to records from French national examinations, as well as these students’ higher education application behavior and ultimate institution of enrollment. Using the quasi-random allocation of teachers to classes, we estimate that being assigned to a teacher with feedback that is one standard deviation more gendered improves student math performance by 1.6 percent of a standard deviation on average, but does not affect students’ enrollment in higher education in the following year
PSE Working Paper n°2022-19, July 2022
Determinants of Gender Discrimination by Teachers: Evidence from an online experiment. (with Philippe Colo and Etienne Dagorn) [Link to SSRN working paper]
Abstract: This paper examines whether teachers' gender biases stem from discrimination, and focuses on two of its potential drivers: gender preferences and beliefs. In an online experiment, 1,840 teachers evaluated fictitious transcripts with randomized gender information. Preferences were measured via dictator games, and beliefs through an Implicit Association Test. While teachers showed no gender preferences, they did hold gender beliefs. Analyzing 19,000 transcript evaluations, we find no evidence of gender-based discrimination. Our findings suggest that simply disclosing a student's gender does not trigger discrimination, implying that such behaviours are more likely to emerge during direct student-teacher interactions.
Funding : This project received a grant from the EUR Paris Jourdan Sciences Eco and from the Women in Science Chair from University Paris Dauphine
AEA RCT Registry n°AEARCTR-0012302
Note : This paper previously circulated as "The Roots of Gendered Behaviours: Evidence from an Online Experiment with Secondary Education Teachers".
Holistic Admissions : A Text Analysis of Applications to Sciences Po (with Stéphane Benveniste and Marine Haddad) [ANALYSIS IN PROGRESS]
Abstract :The expansion of selective admissions in French higher education through Parcoursup has been accompanied by an increasing consideration of applicants' "environment." In 2021, Sciences Po joined the platform and reformed its admission process. The introduction of personal statements, accounting for one-third of the eligibility score, aimed to assess applicants' trajectories, experiences, and motivations beyond their academic performance. Based on an analysis of 13,000 applications to Sciences Po that year, our study examines how these new criteria are reshaping the selection process. By analyzing applicants' profiles, the content of their personal statements analyzed through textual analysis, and their eligibility scores, our findings reveal that these statements challenge the traditional academic hierarchy by emphasizing the ability to present oneself effectively and engage with themes aligned with Sciences Po’s values—without, however, altering the social composition of eligible candidates.
How do Students Respond to Information on Graduation Chances? Evidence from University Admissions in France (with Gabrielle Fack, Julien Grenet and Yinghua He) [ANALYSIS IN PROGRESS]
Abstract: This paper evaluates the impact of a reduction in information frictions on students’ enrollment in higher education and subsequent educational outcomes. We exploit the French Active Orientation policy that provides a positive, a neutral or a negative assessment on students’ chances of graduating in programs based on their past academic record and a set of predetermined program-specific cutoffs. We use those multiple cutoffs in a regression discontinuity design to estimate the causal effects of receiving a negative (positive) message relatively to a neutral one on students’ enrollment decisions and on their persistence in higher education. Receiving a negative message entails a 5 percent reduction in the probability to matriculate in the program issuing the message, and encourages matriculation in a different type of program in another higher education institution. These effects are stronger for students who receive more than one negative message. We do not observe significant effect on persistence in higher education two years later. On the other hand, the 4 percent increase in matriculation in the program induced by a positive message is at the expense of enrollment in higher peer-quality programs. These effects are mostly driven by female students, and by students receiving multiple positive messages.
An introductory digital training course to reduce gender stereotypes and change the educational and professional careers of women, (with Quentin Daviot, Marc Gurgand, Mathilde Sage and Georgia Thebault) [PILOT IN PROGRESS]
The marking lottery in secondary education: assessment and solutions (with Philippe Colo, Etienne Dagorn and Alberto Prati)
In secondary education, marking holds a pivotal role in shaping students’ academic trajectories and, ultimately, their labor prospects. Grades serve as a compass guiding students, parents, educators, and institutions in navigating the path toward educational success. Crucially, the fairness and reliability of this process depends on the accuracy of the grades themselves. So how accurate are these grades? This study provides an analysis of the amount of noise (i.e., undesirable variation) in teachers’ ratings of students’ profiles. We will estimate the amount of noise via an incentivized online noise audit of 1,000 professional teachers in France who will be asked to grade 10 fictitious profiles from highschool students on a cardinal scale from 0 to 30, as well as using an ordinal scale from 1 to 7. This exercise will provide a quantitative estimate of the amount of variation in students’ ratings which is due to the random assignment to a teacher relative to actual differences in the students’ profiles.
Pre-analysis plan registered on OSF Registries
Executives' Gender Gap in Promotion: Evidence from a Large French Firm (with Marion Leturcq and Dominique Meurs)
Ségrégation sociale en milieu scolaire : déterminer ses causes et appréhender ses effets, with Pauline Charousset and Youssef Souidi, Document de travail du Conseil d'évaluation de l'école n°23-02, Note de l'IPP n°97.
Role models féminins : un levier efficace pour inciter les filles à poursuivre des études scientifiques ?, with Thomas Breda, Julien Grenet and Clémentine Van Effenterre, Note IPP n°45, 2019.
Changement de gouvernance et performance des entreprises, with Laurent Bach and Sophie Cottet, Rapport IPP n°19, 2018.
Évaluer les effets des aides de l’ADEME sur la R&D et la performance des entreprises, with Sophie Cottet, Fanny Henriet, Katrin Millock and Lucile Romanello, Rapport IPP n°17, 2017.
Bilan du quinquennat 2012-2017 : les finances publiques, with Antoine Bozio and Sophie Cottet, Note IPP n°27, 2017. [French] [English]
Analyse des dispositifs d’aide à l’accession à la propriété, with Antoine Bozio and Lucile Romanello, Rapport IPP n°16, 2016.
Analyser les mesures socio-fiscales sous l’angle des inégalités entre les femmes et les hommes, with Sophie Cottet and Lucile Romanello, Note IPP n°23, 2016. [French] [English]
Evaluation des programmes de réussite éducative, with Pascal Bressoux, Marc Gurgand, Nina Guyon and Julie Pernaudet, Rapport IPP n°13, 2016.
Budget 2016: la difficile maîtrise des dépenses publiques? with Mahdi Ben Jelloul, Antoine Bozio, Sophie Cottet, Malka Guillot and Lucile Romanello, Note IPP n°21, 2015. [French] [English]
Referee for Nature Human Behaviour, Management Science, The Economic Journal, Journal of Public Economics, Plos One, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization; Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics,The Journal of Human Resources; Labour Economics; The Economics of Transition; Economics of Education Review; Education Economics; Oxford Economics Papers; Economie et Statistiques ; Revue Economique; Revue d'économie politique; Formation & Emploi; Journal International de la recherche en éducation et formation.
Pedagogical director of the third year of the Bachelors' degree in Educational Sciences - Université de Bourgogne