Ilaria Malisan (Dondena Centre, Bocconi University)

Job market practice talks

With honors. University Honors Programs and Graduates’ Careers

Abstract: Quality in tertiary education pays off. In countries with competitive tertiary education, elite flagship institutions attract high-achieving students. Not all bright students, however, access elite institutions. Can honors programs be an alternative way to nurture talent? This paper studies the causal impact of attending an honors program offered to high-achieving students at a non-selective university in a context with non-competitive tertiary institutions. We exploit plausibly exogenous variation in the program’s admission procedure, which leads to a strong discontinuity in the probability of admission and enrollment. We show the program works as a commitment device, reducing dropout rates and time to graduation for admitted students, but does not significantly affect enrollment decisions. Moreover, enrolment into the program leads to a sizeable improvement in academic achievement (+0.93 GPA points on a scale of 30) and shapes future labour market prospects towards post-graduate studies (+22 pp). Prospects are partially confirmed by a reduction (-34 pp) in master’s graduates’ labour force participation one year after graduation. We find evidence of a peer effect mechanism, with honors students living in dorms with a higher rate of fellow honors students displaying stronger positive effects on academics, while the program’s multidisciplinary component shows no effect on students’ final theses citation patterns. According to our findings, honors programs can be an effective tool to improve educational attainment and foster further human capital accumulation in talented students.