A Revealed Preference Ranking of U.S. Colleges and Universities

S-Tier
Journal: Quarterly Journal of Economics
Year: 2013
Volume: 128
Issue: 1
Pages: 425-467

Authors (4)

Christopher N. Avery (not in RePEc) Mark E. Glickman (not in RePEc) Caroline M. Hoxby (Stanford University) Andrew Metrick (Yale University)

Score contribution per author:

2.011 = (α=2.01 / 4 authors) × 4.0x S-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

We present a method of ranking U.S. undergraduate programs based on students' revealed preferences. When a student chooses a college among those that have admitted him, that college "wins" his "tournament." Our method efficiently integrates the information from thousands of such tournaments. We implement the method using data from a national sample of high-achieving students. We demonstrate that this ranking method has strong theoretical properties, eliminating incentives for colleges to adopt strategic, inefficient admissions policies to improve their rankings. We also show empirically that our ranking is (1) not vulnerable to strategic manipulation; (2) similar regardless of whether we control for variables, such as net cost, that vary among a college's admits; (3) similar regardless of whether we account for students selecting where to apply, including Early Decision. We exemplify multiple rankings for different types of students who have preferences that vary systematically. JEL Codes: I2, I23, C35, D11. Copyright 2013, Oxford University Press.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:oup:qjecon:v:128:y:2013:i:1:p:425-467
Journal Field
General
Author Count
4
Added to Database
2026-01-26