Christopher Campos

Selected Research

1. Who Chooses and Who Benefits? The Design of Public School Choice Systems

   Campos, Christopher, Chyn, Eric, Bruhn, Jesse, and Vazquez, Antonia

   Under Review

   Public school choice has evolved rapidly in the past two decades, as districts roll out new magnet, dual-language, and themed programs to broaden educational opportunity. We use newly collected national data to document that opt-in (voluntary) systems: (i) are the modal design; (ii) are harder to navigate; and (iii) have participation that is concentrated among more advantaged students. These facts suggest a striking inconsistency: districts have largely adopted centralized assignment algorithms to broaden access, but most rely on optional participation that fragments public education. We study the implications of this design choice in the Los Angeles Unified School District, the largest opt-in system in the country, combining two decades of administrative data, randomized lotteries, and quasi-experimental expansions in access. Participation is highly selective, consistent with national evidence, and lottery estimates suggest that the students with the lowest demand for choice schools are the ones who gain the most from attending. Opt-in participation therefore embeds a selection mechanism that screens out high-return students and leaves many effective programs with unused capacity. To evaluate system-level implications, we estimate a structural model linking applications, enrollment, and achievement. Choice schools are vertically differentiated and generate meaningful gains, but the opt-in participation rule—through high application costs and negative selection on gains—prevents these benefits from reaching the students who need them most. Counterfactual simulations make the design stakes clear: information and travel-cost reductions have limited effects, whereas reforms that change the participation architecture eliminate core inefficiencies and deliver the largest district-wide achievement gains. These results underscore that system design—not school effectiveness alone—shapes who benefits from public school choice and to what extent.

   Abstract PDF

   
2. College Major Choice, Payoffs, and Gender Gaps

   Campos, Christopher, Munoz, Pablo, Bucarey, Alonso, and Contreras, Dante

   Under Review

   This paper studies how college major choices shape earnings and fertility outcomes. Using administrative data that link students’ preferences, quasi-random assignment to majors, and post-college outcomes, we estimate the causal pecuniary and non-pecuniary returns to different fields of study. We document substantial heterogeneity in these returns across majors and show that such variation helps explain gender gaps in labor market outcomes: women place greater weight on balancing career and family in their major choices, and these preference differences account for about 30% of the gender earnings gap among college graduates. Last, we use our causal estimates to evaluate the effects of counterfactual assignment rules that target representation gaps in settings with centralized assignment systems. We find that gender quotas in high-return fields can significantly reduce representation and earnings gaps with minimal impacts on efficiency and aggregate fertility.

   Abstract PDF

   
3. Social Interactions, Information, and Preferences for Schools: Experimental Evidence from Los Angeles

   Campos, Christopher

   Under Review

   This paper measures parents’ beliefs about school and peer quality, how information about school and peer quality affects parents’ school choices, and how social interactions mediate these effects. In a field experiment, parents were randomly given information on school quality and peer quality, with varying proximity to other parents who received similar information. Results show that parents typically underestimate school quality and overestimate peer quality. When both parents and their neighbors received information, preferences shifted toward higher value-added schools. These findings suggest substantial information spillovers, leading to increased enrollment in effective schools. Enrollment in more effective schools leads to improved socio-emotional outcomes not captured by standardized exams. This evidence suggests that the intervention did more than alter educational pathways; it also played a critical role in shaping important developmental aspects of students’ lives.

   Abstract PDF Fordham