Inferring Trade-Offs in University Admissions: Evidence from Cambridge
研究精英大学在招生中如何平衡多样性与学业成绩，利用剑桥大学的录取和考试数据，发现数学密集型学科中存在性别平衡与未来表现之间的权衡。
How do elite universities balance diversity and academics during admissions? We develop a theory-based empirical framework to identify and quantify this potential trade-off, using postentry outcomes. We apply this to matched admission and exam-performance data from Cambridge. Comparing first- versus second-round admits from different demographic groups yields bounds on the trade-off magnitude, which (a) hold irrespective of whether we observe all applicant characteristics and (b) require no information on rejected applicants. We find robust evidence of trade-off between gender balance and future performance in math-intensive subjects but not for state/private school students or for gender in competitive nonmathematical disciplines.