Cristobal Ruiz-Tagle Coloma

My research focuses on understanding decision-making and performance in high-stakes settings, exploring how these conditions contribute to the emergence of inequities. I draw on insights from psychology and behavioral economics, testing them using real-world evidence from large administrative datasets and publicly available surveys. I aim to provide insights that can guide the design of more effective and equitable policies. I will be on the 2024/25 academic job market.

JOB MARKET PAPER: Performance gaps in high-stakes testing: the role of textual context

Standardized tests play a crucial role in determining educational and professional opportunities, yet they often assume uniform performance across diverse groups. While much research has examined how testing environments contribute to performance gaps, the impact of textual content within test questions has received less attention. This paper investigates how the contextual features of questions in Brazil’s ENEM—the second-largest college admission test globally—correlate with performance disparities related to socioeconomic status (SES), gender, and ethnicity. Using data from over 3.8 million senior high-school test-takers across 13 years (2010–2022), I analyze item-specific gaps and link them to the multidimensional space of words used in each question. Through regularization regressions, I identify specific words and topics that significantly correlate with wider or narrower gaps. Hypotheses generated  only based from these patterns are tested using a rich set of fixed effects at the individual-question level. The results reveal that SES gaps correlate with a 1.4 percentage point increase (23% of the overall SES gap) when items feature financial concepts, especially among higher-ability test-takers. Gender gaps widen by 1.1 percentage points (30% of the average gender gap) when questions are framed using technical, abstract scientific contexts involving complex measurements or theoretical constructs, but this effect only emerges among high-ability female test-takers. The presence of female characters tends to offset the widening effect, while the presence of underprivileged characters amplifies the widening for SES gaps. The reducing channel narrows gender gaps by 0.6 percentage points across all ability levels. No significant textual features were found to affect ethnic gaps. These findings offer crucial insights for test design and suggest a data-driven approach that can be applied to improve fairness in other testing contexts. 

PUBLICATIONS

• Ruiz-Tagle, C. (2019). Selection Of School Principals Based On Competitive Processes: Evidence From One Policy In Chile. Calidad en la Educación, No 51. pp. 85-130. doi: https://doi.org/10.31619/caledu.n51.646
• Ruiz-Tagle, C., Paredes, R. (2019). Higher technical education: An alternative to university? El Trimestre Económico, Vol. 86, N° 341, pp. 31-63. doi: https://doi.org/10.20430/ete.v86i341.621

In-Progress

• Understanding the Rules of the Game : The Role of Cutoffs in College Admissions (with Raphaelle Aulagnon)
• Breastfeeding duration and Child Development: evidence from a natural experiment (with Diana Krüger, Matias Berthelon and Rafael Sánchez)
• Battling inertia: evidence from a pro-competition reform in the chilean pension system