Competitive Schools and the Gender Gap in the Choice of Field of Study
利用断点回归设计，研究发现进入更具选择性的高中（同伴能力更高）对男孩的专业选择无影响，但显著促使女孩远离科学领域，转向竞争力较弱、声望较低的专业。
French students have to choose a major field of study at the end of their first year of high school. This is a very important decision as students have little leeway to change their field of study during the two last years of high school. Building on a RD design, this paper reveals that enrollment at a more selective high school, with higher-achieving peers, has no impact on boys' choices, but a very significant impact on girls' ones: they turn away from scientific fields and settle for less competitive and prestigious ones. Estimated effects are very large: an increase of about 10% of a SD in the ability level of high school peers induces a reduction of about 10 percentage points in the proportion of girls who choose to specialize in science. Effects are even larger for girls at the top of the ability distribution.