The achievement and course-taking effects of magnet schools: Regression-discontinuity evidence from urban ChinaEconomics of Education Review 47 (2015) 128–142

By  Thomas Dee

      Center for Education Policy Analysis, Stanford University,

      Xiaohuan Lan

      China Center for Economic Studies, Research Institute of Chinese Economy, Fudan University

We examine the effects of attending elite magnet schools on the subsequent academic performance of high-school students in urban China. Using a novel data set of the students who entered high school from 2006 to 2008 in a Chinese city, our fuzzy regression discontinuity estimates exploit the threshold values of the high school entrance exam scores. Passing the thresholds significantly reduces the financial cost and raises the probability of attending a magnet school. However, attending such an elite school does not meaningfully improve the academic performance of the marginal student.

附件：

Economics ofEducationReview（2015）47：The achievementand course-taking effects of magnet schools(Lan Xiaohuan).pdf