Updated Expectations and College Application Portfolios

Bond, Timothy N. and Bulman, George and Li, Xiaoxiao and Smith, Jonathan (2016): Updated Expectations and College Application Portfolios.

Abstract

Economists have a limited understanding of how sensitive human capital investment is to information about aptitude or likelihood of success. We shed light on this by estimating if students update their college choices in response to large positive and negative information shocks generated by the release of SAT scores. Using new data on when students select colleges to receive their scores, we find that positive shocks cause students to choose more selective colleges that charge higher tuition and have higher graduation rates. Updating is significant for students from high and low income households and for minority and non-minority students.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: college choice; learning; SAT
• Subjects: D - Microeconomics > D8 - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty > D83 - Search ; Learning ; Information and Knowledge ; Communication ; Belief ; Unawareness; I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I2 - Education and Research Institutions > I20 - General; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J2 - Demand and Supply of Labor > J24 - Human Capital ; Skills ; Occupational Choice ; Labor Productivity

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