Matching in the Dark? Inequalities in student to degree match

Stuart Campbell (), Lindsey Macmillan (), Richard Murphy and Gill Wyness
Additional contact information
Stuart Campbell: Department of Social Science, UCL Institute of Education, University College London

No 20-01, CEPEO Working Paper Series from UCL Centre for Education Policy and Equalising Opportunities

Abstract: This paper examines inequalities in the match between student quality and university quality using linked administrative data from schools, universities and tax authorities. We analyse two measures of match at the university-subject (degree) level, based on student academic achievement, and graduate earnings. We find that students from lower socio-economic groups systematically undermatch for both measures across the entire distribution of achievement, with particularly stark socio-economic gaps for the most undermatched. This is in a setting with no up-front tuition fees and a generous financial aid system. We show that distance is not a driving factor, but that secondary schools play a key role in generating these gaps. While there are negligible gender gaps in academic match, high-attaining women systematically undermatch in terms of expected earnings, largely driven by subject choice.

Keywords: higher education; educational economics; college choice; mismatch; undermatch (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I22 I23 I28 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 52 pages
Date: 2020-01, Revised 2020-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu and nep-eur
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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https://repec-cepeo.ucl.ac.uk/cepeow/cepeowp20-01.pdf First version, 2020 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Matching in the Dark? Inequalities in Student to Degree Match (2022)
Working Paper: Matching in the Dark? Inequalities in Student to Degree Match (2021)
Working Paper: Matching in the Dark? Inequalities in student to degree match (2021)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ucl:cepeow:20-01

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