@techreport{NBERw17120, title = "How Performance Information
Affects Human-Capital Investment Decisions: The Impact of Test-
Score Labels on Educational Outcomes", author = "John P. Papay
and Richard J. Murnane and John B. Willett", institution =
"National Bureau of Economic Research", type = "Working Paper",
series = "Working Paper Series", number = "17120", year =
"2011", month = "June", URL =
"http://www.nber.org/papers/w17120", abstract = {Students
receive abundant information about their educational
performance, but how this information affects future
educational-investment decisions is not well understood.
Increasingly common sources of information are state-mandated
standardized tests. On these tests, students receive a score and
a label that summarizes their performance. Using a regression-
discontinuity design, we find persistent effects of earning a
more positive label on the college-going decisions of urban,
low-income students. Consistent with a Bayesian-updating model,
these effects are concentrate