Quiz 8

The following quiz questions are based on the research question: Does attending the most selective university in your state (the “flagship” university) increase students' long-term earnings? These questions are based on Hoekstra (2006)—if you are interested in the paper, you can read it here after the quiz: https://users.nber.org/~confer/2006/EDf06/hoekstra.pdf

The author estimates this relationship through confidential records on admissions and state Unemployment Insurance earnings data for 28-33-year-olds. The author measures the threshold for admission as a student's SAT score (given their GPA) and measures the difference between this threshold and their raw SAT score.

The three below graphs are from the paper and plot the difference between a student's SAT score - the admissions threshold and 1) admissions, 2) enrollment, and 3) earnings. Notice that the size of the discontinuity and the t-stat of the coefficient are on the title of the images.

1. What is the running variable?
1. The percentage of students who applied to the University
2. A dummy variable for whether someone had an SAT score above the admission threshold
3. The difference between a student's SAT score and each college's threshold
4. The earnings of students who were admitted to the University
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2. What is the treatment?
1. Admission to a flagship University
2. Enrollment in a flagship University
3. Future earnings
4. SAT score relative to the threshold
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3. What is the main outcome?
1. Admission to a flagship University
2. Enrollment in a flagship University
3. Future earnings
4. SAT score relative to the threshold
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4. After looking at the three graphs above, what is the answer to the research question?
1. People with SAT scores right above the cutoff are much more likely to be admitted to and enroll in flagship schools, they also tend to have slightly higher earnings 10-15 years after graduating college.
2. People with higher SAT scores are more likely to have higher earnings.
3. Since there are similar slopes for students above and below the cutoff, there is not a seemingly significant effect of attending a flagship University on earnings.
4. Flagship universities are more selective and select on students who are more likely to have higher earnings in the future.
5. Flagship universities are not selecting students based on their SAT scores.
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