Double-Shift High Schools and School Performance: Evidence from Regression Discontinuity Design

Multiple-shift schooling systems are a cheap way to expand school supply. However, there is however some concern that this strategy trades off equality in school quality for cost effectiveness. We explore whether this is the... [ view full abstract ]

Multiple-shift schooling systems are a cheap way to expand school supply. However, there is however some concern that this strategy trades off equality in school quality for cost effectiveness. We explore whether this is the case by exploiting the discontinuous assignment to shifts based on the students' middle school GPA. Using data from administrative records and a survey in a high school system in Mexico City, we find that being assigned to the afternoon shift leads to a 12 percentage points increase in the probability of dropping out for female students, and a 12.4 percentage points decrease in this probability for male students. We then explore on the mechanisms behind this asymmetric response, and find that peer effects and relative ranking may be behind it.