%0 Journal Article %A Laura Pagani %A Simona Comi %A Federica Origo %T The Effect of School Rank on Personality Traits %D 2019 %R 10.3368/jhr.56.4.1218-9916R2 %J Journal of Human Resources %P 1218-9916R2 %X We study the effect of classroom rank on high-school students’ Big Five personality traits. We exploit idiosyncratic differences in the class distribution of earlier academic achievement. Such differences generate quasi-random variation in class rank for students with the same initial achievement. We find a positive and sizeable effect of rank on conscientiousness, but we find no effects on the other four personality traits. A thorough analysis of the mechanism suggests that the primary channels through which class rank improves conscientiousness are perceived ability and academic motivation. %U https://jhr.uwpress.org/content/wpjhr/early/2019/10/07/jhr.56.4.1218-9916R2.full.pdf