Location and educational signals: do students in rural locations receive less ambitious teacher recommendations?

Abstract

Students in rural areas underperform in educational outcomes across the globe, but the mechanisms behind this remain unclear. In this paper, I investigate whether students in rural areas receive less ambitious signals regarding their ability and educational prospects. Using data on teacher recommendations and national exam scores, I show that students in rural areas receive significantly less ambitious secondary school track recommendations conditional on observed ability. This difference is not explained by the spatial selection of households or unobserved heterogeneity in ability, is visible for all demographic groups, and is strongest for students on the margin of admission to the academic track. The spatial differences are sizable, and comparable in magnitude to the well-established effects of individual and household characteristics on teacher recommendations.

Keywords: Teacher Bias, Spatial Inequality; Human Capital; Education

JEL Classification: I25; O18; R11