Preference Submission Timing and College Admission Outcomes: Evidence from Turkey

Review of Economic Design

53 Pages Posted: 3 Mar 2021 Last revised: 24 Aug 2023

See all articles by Hayri Alper Arslan

Hayri Alper Arslan

University of Texas at San Antonio - College of Business - Department of Economics

Yang Song

Colgate University - Economics Department

Tong Wang

Waseda University

Date Written: February 11, 2023

Abstract

This paper studies the effects of reducing information uncertainty on matching outcomes in a college choice setting. Turkey reformed its college admissions in 1999, changing the preference submission process for four-year programs from pre-exam to post-exam submission, both under the constrained Deferred Acceptance mechanism. A conceptual framework illustrates that the reform improved matching outcomes in two ways: (i) fewer programs with unfilled seats, (ii) more assortative matching between students and programs, i.e. higher cutoff ranks for more highly ranked programs. Results from a difference-in-differences strategy confirm such predictions and find that the reform led to less undercapacity among lower ranked programs and stronger assortative matching between high-achieving students and highly ranked programs. Moreover, we find some suggestive evidence that the post-exam submission may have led to fewer enrolled students overall but more female students in four-year programs.

Keywords: College admission, matching stability, post-exam submission, Deferred Acceptance mechanism, Turkey

JEL Classification: C78, D82, I23, I28

Suggested Citation

Arslan, Hayri Alper and Song, Yang and Wang, Tong, Preference Submission Timing and College Admission Outcomes: Evidence from Turkey (February 11, 2023). Review of Economic Design , Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3757012 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3757012

Hayri Alper Arslan (Contact Author)

University of Texas at San Antonio - College of Business - Department of Economics ( email )

6900 North Loop 1604 West
San Antonio, TX 78249
United States

Yang Song

Colgate University - Economics Department ( email )

13 Oak Drive
Hamilton, NY 13346
United States

Tong Wang

Waseda University ( email )

1-104 Totsukamachi, Shinjuku-ku
tokyo, 169-8050
Japan

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