Does it matter where you rank in school as a kid?

The effects

• A higher ordinal rank in primary school increases performance in secondary school (Murphy and Weinhardt 2020), high school achievement, completion, college enrollment, and future earnings (Denning et al 2021)
• Ordinal rank in high school increases the likelihood of high school graduation and college enrollment (Elsner and Isphording 2017), decreases the likelihood of engaging in risky behaviors such as smoking, drinking, unprotected sex, fighting, etc (Elsner and Isphording 2018), and increases conscientiousness (Pagani et al 2021)
• Professional development for teachers that deemphasizes social comparison seems to mitigate this effect (Gilbert et al 2022)
  

What does it depend on?

• The effect seems to be bigger for boys (Murphy and Weinhardt 2020)
• The mechanism of self-concept be larger in secondary school than primary school (Fang et al 2018)
  

Why?

• Large literature documenting the Big Fish Little Pond Effect (BFLPE) , or that ordinal rank affects one's academic self concept (Fang et al 2018)
  
• Relatedly, higher ordinal rank is associated with higher educational and career expectations (Elsner and Isphording 2017; Elsner and Isphording 2018), perceived abilities and motivation (Elsner and Isphording 2017; Pagani et al 2021)

Notes

• Interesting tradeoffs with literature on peer effects and school quality