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University rankings in action? The importance of rankings and an excellence competition for university choice of high-ability students?

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  • Horstschräer, Julia

Abstract

This paper analyzes how high-ability students respond to different indicators of university quality when applying for a university. Are some quality dimensions of a ranking, e.g. research reputation or mentoring more important than others? I estimate a random utility model using administrative application data of all German medical schools. As identification relies on the variation in quality indicators over time, I can disentangle the response to changes in quality indicators from the common knowledge regarding the overall university attractiveness. Results show that the ranking provides more relevant information in the quality dimensions mentoring, infrastructure and students' satisfaction than with respect to research.

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  • Horstschräer, Julia, 2011. "University rankings in action? The importance of rankings and an excellence competition for university choice of high-ability students?," ZEW Discussion Papers 11-061, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:zewdip:11061
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    Cited by:

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    2. Guironnet, Jean-Pascal & Peypoch, Nicolas, 2018. "The geographical efficiency of education and research: The ranking of U.S. universities," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 44-55.
    3. Gibbons, Stephen & Neumayer, Eric & Perkins, Richard, 2015. "Student satisfaction, league tables and university applications: Evidence from Britain," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 148-164.
    4. Mira Fischer & Patrick Kampkötter, 2017. "Effects of German Universities' Excellence Initiative on Ability Sorting of Students and Perceptions of Educational Quality," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 173(4), pages 662-687, December.
    5. Horstschräer, Julia, 2012. "Decentralizing university admission: Evidence from a natural experiment," ZEW Discussion Papers 12-076, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    6. Rhys J. Williams, 2022. "The effect of casual teaching on student satisfaction: evidence from the UK," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(1), pages 91-111, January.
    7. Stephen Gibbons & Eric Neumayer & Richard Perkins, 2013. "Student Satisfaction, League Tables and University Applications," SERC Discussion Papers 0142, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    8. Angela Maria D’Uggento & Luca Petruzzellis & Luigi Piper & Antonia Rosa Gurrieri, 2023. "In the name of the University: the choice to promote as a tool to influence decision-making," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 57(4), pages 3151-3164, August.
    9. Tullia Russo & Tindata Addabbo & Silvia Muzzioli & Bernard De Baets, 2021. "Tools and practices for LGBT+ inclusion in tertiary education: the development of the LGBT+ University Inclusion Index and its application to Italian universities Abstract: The literature provides evi," Department of Economics 0187, University of Modena and Reggio E., Faculty of Economics "Marco Biagi".
    10. Cantner, Uwe & Grashof, Nils & Grebel, Thomas & Zhang, Xijie, 2023. "When Excellence is not Excellent: The Impact of the Excellence Initiative on the Relative Productivity of German Universities," MPRA Paper 118139, University Library of Munich, Germany.
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    14. Biancardi, Daniele & Bratti, Massimiliano, 2019. "The effect of introducing a Research Evaluation Exercise on student enrolment: Evidence from Italy," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 73-93.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Higher education; university choice; college admission; conditional logit;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • I23 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Higher Education; Research Institutions
    • I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy
    • C25 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Discrete Regression and Qualitative Choice Models; Discrete Regressors; Proportions; Probabilities

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