Wednesday, 28 January, 2026

Bohdana Kurylo: Essays on Economics of Education

Dissertation Committee:

Nikolas Mittag (CERGE-EI, chair)

Randall K. Filer (City University of New York)

Štěpán Jurajda (CERGE-EI) 

Defense Committee:

Daniel Münich (CERGE-EI, chair)

Christian Ochsner (CERGE-EI)

Lubomír Cingl (VŠE)

Meeting link: https://cerge-ei.webex.com/cerge-ei/j.php?MTID=m2a8b3f6d8ad59d8e09010cfaa417f153

Meeting number: 2743 488 0118

Meeting password: 325469

Abstract:

This dissertation investigates how teacher-student demographic match, policy-induced changes in migration opportunities, and ordinal rank influence students’ educational outcomes.

The first chapter examines whether the benefits of having a same-race teacher extend beyond test scores to non-test academic outcomes. Using the random assignment of teachers in the Measures of Effective Teaching (MET) project, I find that Black students assigned to Black teachers not only improve their math performance but also report more effective teacher–student communication. This paper contributes direct evidence on a potential mechanism—improved communication effectiveness—that may help to explain the long-term gains from same-race teachers observed in prior studies. Although communication does not explain short-run test score improvements in my setting, educational research shows that teacher–student rapport is strongly associated with outcomes such as high school graduation and college enrolment. I find that the communication effect is driven by more effective instructional alignment between Black teachers and Black students, consistent with the literature on culturally relevant pedagogy.

The second chapter (jointly with Davit Adunts) examines how expanded international migration opportunities influence gender differences in STEM field choices. We study the impact of a 2017 visa liberalization policy between the European Union and Ukraine, which lifted visa requirements for Ukrainian citizens holding biometric passports. Using comprehensive administrative data on university applications from all Ukrainian high school graduates, we analyze how this policy shift affected male and female students’ preferences for STEM programs. Employing a difference-in-differences approach and leveraging regional variation in pre-policy emigration rates, we find that the gender gap in selecting a STEM field as a first-choice preference widened by approximately 12.2 percent after the reform, driven primarily by a stronger response among male students to migration opportunities. These insights are particularly relevant for policymakers aiming to reduce gender imbalances in STEM and retain globally-mobile talent to support economic growth.

The third chapter examines the long-term academic effects of students’ ordinal rank within their kindergarten classroom and how incomplete peer data can bias the estimates of these effects. Using data from Project STAR—a large-scale randomized controlled trial with near-complete test score coverage—I estimate the impact of reading- and math-specific classroom rank on high school GPA, graduation, SAT/ACT participation, and ACT scores. Students ranked near the top of their kindergarten classroom experience lasting academic advantages, particularly in GPA and test participation. These effects are highly nonlinear and are concentrated among top-ranked students. To assess the consequences of data limitations, I simulate varying levels of peer test score observability under a missing completely at random (MCAR) assumption. The results show that measurement error due to partial peer data disproportionately attenuates estimates at the top of the rank distribution, precisely where the true effects are largest. This alignment between effect heterogeneity and bias severity suggests that studies relying on incomplete peer data may systematically understate the role of top-ranked status in shaping students’ educational trajectories. The findings underscore the importance of accurate rank measurement for both empirical validity and the interpretation of early academic dynamics.

Keywords: Same-race teacher, teacher-student communication, gender disparities, STEM field, migration opportunities, ordinal rank, peer effects, measurement error, long-term outcomes

Full Text: "Essays on Economics of Education"