Title: High-stakes Examinations and Educational Inequality: Evidence from Transitory Exposure to Air Pollution
Speaker：Rui Du, Oklahoma State University
Date：9:30 -11：00, 18 March, 2021 （Beijing Time, GMT+8）
On Zoom
About the Speaker:
Rui Du is an Assistant Professor of Economics at the Department of Economics, Oklahoma State University. Dr. Du’s research interests include urban and regional economics, applied microeconomics, economic geography, and the Chinese economy. He teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in urban economics, macroeconomics, and statistics. Dr. Du received a B.A. in mathematical economics and finance from Central University of Finance and Economics and holds a Ph.D. in economics from Clark University. Before joining Oklahoma State University in 2019, He was a Postdoctoral Associate in the Center for Real Estate (CRE) and the Department of Urban Studies and Planning (DUSP) at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Abstract:
Using a unique dataset of student performance in a major college English test in China, we study the impact of random disturbances to cognitive performance due to transitory variation in air pollution during high-stakes exams. Tracking the exam takers who took the exam multiple times, a panel model with individual fixed effects documents significant adverse cognitive effects of transitory air pollution exposure. The adverse effects vary substantially by severity of air pollution, exam section, student academic
ability, and gender. We further show that the harmful cognitive effects significantly reduce students’ chances of being admitted into graduate school. The result is robust to both an instrumental variable method and a discontinuity-based approach in light of the threshold score required to pass the exam. Importantly, a counterfactual analysis based on our empirical estimates demonstrates that the effects are substantially larger for the marginal students who scored just above the threshold score. Taken together, our paper highlights the current educational inequality that arises from the use of a minimum passing score in a high-stakes exam and air quality degradation.
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