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Optimal Allocation of Seats in the Presence of Peer Effects: Evidence from a Job Training Program

Matthew Baird; John Engberg; Isaac Opper
Journal of Labor Economics 2023 41(2), 479-509
We model optimal treatment assignment in programs with a limited number of seats and study how the presence of peer effects impacts the optimal allocation rule. We then use data from a randomized control trial to show evidence that there are large peer effects in the context of job training for disadvantaged adults in the United States. Finally, we combine the model and the empirics to show that the program would have had a much greater impact if the assignment choices had accounted for the peer effects.

Evaluating Education Programs That Have Lotteried Admission and Selective Attrition

John Engberg; Dennis Epple; Jason Imbrogno; Holger Sieg; Ron Zimmer
Journal of Labor Economics 2014 32(1), 27-63 open access
We study the effectiveness of magnet programs in an urban district that ration excess demand by admission lotteries. Differential attrition arises since students who lose the lottery are more likely to pursue options outside the school district than students who win the lottery. When students leave the district, important outcome variables are often not observed. The treatment effects are not point-identified. We exploit known quantiles of the outcome distribution to construct informative bounds on treatment effects. We find that magnet programs improve behavioral outcomes but have no significant effect on achievement.