October 11, 2012, 12:45–14:00
Toulouse
Room MF 323
Brown Bag Seminar
Abstract
Vestibular system is a college entry system used in Brazil to match students with programs. Students choose programs before taking the exams and only compete with students choosing the same program in a two stage selection mechanism. This paper builds a simple dynamic model to study students' performance in exams and their preferences for programs in order to evaluate the efficiency of the system. The model is estimated by basic parametric regressions and partially linear model using cross-section data about the exams at Universidade Federal do Ceara in Brazil in 2004. Based on estimated results and simulations, two directions of policy change are discussed, which show that the ex ante expected utilitarian social welfare can be increased by giving students more choices and better timing of the program selection..