Why Do Asian Students Study Harder? Implications of a Model of Academic Competition

Abstract

Popularized by the OECD’s PISA rankings of a few dozen countries/regions according to the test results of their 15 year olds, Asian students’ impressive academic achievements are now well known. Each of the top five ranking PISA regions/countries in 2012 were Asian. In this paper, authors Timothy Gronberg and Liqun Liu provide a formal theoretical analysis of how various factors affect precollege students’ academic input, using Asian students’ exceptional effort on schoolwork as an example for explanation and intuition. Four channels are discussed: higher education resources, the aptitude of school peers, selective college rewards, and college admissions criterion.