Kunal Mangal
Contact
Email: kmangal@alumni.harvard.edu
Welcome to the TNPSC Research Study!
The TNPSC Research Study is an ongoing effort to better understand the labor market experience of candidates applying to exams conducted by the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission (TNPSC).
What have we learned so far?
New! Our main findings from the past five years are now available in the following report:
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Summary: This report uses data from TNPSC and a survey of over 3000 candidates to shed light on policy-relevant questions about the recruitment process: Who applies? Why do they apply? Why are people willing to invest so much in exam preparation? Why are people willing to gamble on such low odds of getting selected? What is the best way of structuring recruitments for both candidates and the government?
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| Summary: This report uses data from TNPSC and a survey of over 3000 candidates to shed light on policy-relevant questions about the recruitment process: Who applies? Why do they apply? Why are people willing to invest so much in exam preparation? Why are people willing to gamble on such low odds of getting selected? What is the best way of structuring recruitments for both candidates and the government? |
FAQs
What is the purpose of the report?
This report is a summary of the research I have conducted over the course of my PhD and my postdoctoral fellowship. My aim is to circulate some of the main findings in a format that is more accessible than a typical academic research paper.
Are the statistics in the report official?
Although the report uses official data, the statistics in the report were not computed by TNPSC. Therefore, none of these statistics are official, and any errors in processing the data are entirely my own.
Are you affiliated with any coaching center?
No. We are academic researchers. No one who was involved in either collecting and analyzing the data had any affiliation to a coaching center.
Will the report be available in Tamil?
We hope to be able to provide a Tamil version of the report in the near future. If anyone would like to help us with this effort, they are welcome to contact us.
Resources
Here is a list of resources for people who are interested in participating in TNPSC exams, or is interested in helping people who are considering those exams.
TNPSC now makes individual-level data from past completed recruitments available to the public at the above link. If you would like some assistance in learning how to better understand how to use this data, feel free to write to me.
This web application shows how the selection rate varies with candidate characteristics, using TNPSC Open Data from the completed 2019 Group 1 recruitment.
Media
We post updates about the progress of our research on the following channels:
| Facebook: | https://facebook.com/tnpsc.research |
| Telegram: | t.me/tnpscresearchstudy |