IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/reihed/v60y2019i2d10.1007_s11162-018-9512-4.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Impact of the Bologna Process on Graduation: New Evidence from Italy

Author

Listed:
  • Laura Chies

    (University of Trieste)

  • Grazia Graziosi

    (University of Trieste)

  • Francesco Pauli

    (University of Trieste)

Abstract

Between 2001 and 2005, higher education in Italy went through a considerable process of reform according to the Bologna Process. This paper evaluates the effects of this process on the academic performance of students. We estimate the difference in graduation probability between students who switched from pre-reform university courses to post-reform courses and students who carried on their pre-reform academic career. To this end, we considered a sample of 25,866 undergraduate students enrolled 1 year before the implementation of this policy, a number that was reduced by matching techniques to achieve a balanced sample of 1020 units, thereby allowing a causal interpretation of results. Estimates of logistic models on the balanced sample suggest that switching to the post-reform university system increases the probability of completion for younger students. Furthermore, higher socio-economic backgrounds of students are positively related to graduation probability, suggesting that the social inequalities are still noticeable when the completion rates of tertiary education are considered.

Suggested Citation

  • Laura Chies & Grazia Graziosi & Francesco Pauli, 2019. "The Impact of the Bologna Process on Graduation: New Evidence from Italy," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 60(2), pages 203-218, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:reihed:v:60:y:2019:i:2:d:10.1007_s11162-018-9512-4
    DOI: 10.1007/s11162-018-9512-4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11162-018-9512-4
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11162-018-9512-4?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Massimiliano Bratti & Daniele Checchi & Guido De Blasio, 2008. "Does the Expansion of Higher Education Increase the Equality of Educational Opportunities? Evidence from Italy," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 22(s1), pages 53-88, June.
    2. Di Pietro, Giorgio & Cutillo, Andrea, 2008. "Degree flexibility and university drop-out: The Italian experience," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(5), pages 546-555, October.
    3. Manuel Bagues & Mauro Sylos Labini & Natalia Zinovyeva, 2008. "Differential Grading Standards and University Funding: Evidence from Italy," CESifo Economic Studies, CESifo Group, vol. 54(2), pages 149-176.
    4. Ana Rute Cardoso, 2008. "Demand for Higher Education Programs: The Impact of the Bologna Process," CESifo Economic Studies, CESifo Group, vol. 54(2), pages 229-247, June.
    5. Cappellari, Lorenzo & Lucifora, Claudio, 2009. "The "Bologna Process" and college enrollment decisions," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(6), pages 638-647, December.
    6. Brunori, Paolo & Peragine, Vito & Serlenga, Laura, 2012. "Fairness in education: The Italian university before and after the reform," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(5), pages 764-777.
    7. Jo Blanden & Stephen Machin, 2013. "Educational Inequality and The Expansion of UK Higher Education," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 60(5), pages 578-596, November.
    8. Checchi, Daniele & Fiorio, Carlo V. & Leonardi, Marco, 2013. "Intergenerational persistence of educational attainment in Italy," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 118(1), pages 229-232.
    9. Horstschräer, Julia & Sprietsma, Maresa, 2010. "The effects of the bologna process on college enrollment and drop-out rates," ZEW Discussion Papers 10-018, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    10. G. Boero & T. Laureti & R. Naylor, 2005. "An econometric analysis of student withdrawal and progression in post-reform Italian Universities," Working Paper CRENoS 200504, Centre for North South Economic Research, University of Cagliari and Sassari, Sardinia.
    11. Giorgio Di Pietro, 2012. "The Bologna Process and widening participation in university education: new evidence from Italy," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 39(3), pages 357-374, August.
    12. Oppedisano, Veruska, 2011. "The (adverse) effects of expanding higher education: Evidence from Italy," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 997-1008, October.
    13. Federico Cingano & Piero Cipollone, 2007. "University drop-out. The case of Italy," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 626, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    14. Mebane Jr., Walter R. & Sekhon, Jasjeet S., 2011. "Genetic Optimization Using Derivatives: The rgenoud Package for R," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 42(i11).
    15. Benjamin Alcott, 2017. "Does Teacher Encouragement Influence Students’ Educational Progress? A Propensity-Score Matching Analysis," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 58(7), pages 773-804, November.
    16. Alexis Diamond & Jasjeet S. Sekhon, 2013. "Genetic Matching for Estimating Causal Effects: A General Multivariate Matching Method for Achieving Balance in Observational Studies," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 95(3), pages 932-945, July.
    17. Sekhon, Jasjeet S., 2011. "Multivariate and Propensity Score Matching Software with Automated Balance Optimization: The Matching package for R," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 42(i07).
    18. Guido W. Imbens, 2004. "Nonparametric Estimation of Average Treatment Effects Under Exogeneity: A Review," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 86(1), pages 4-29, February.
    19. Javier García-Estévez & Néstor Duch-Brown, 2012. "Student graduation: to what extent does university expenditure matter?," Working Papers 2012/4, Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB).
    20. Massimiliano Bratti & Chiara Broccolini & Stefano Staffolani, 2010. "Higher Education Reform, Student Time Allocation and Academic Performance in Italy: Evidence from a Faculty of Economics," Rivista italiana degli economisti, Società editrice il Mulino, issue 2, pages 275-304.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Laporšek, Suzana & Orazem, Peter F. & Vodopivec, Milan & Vodopivec, Matija, 2021. "Winners and losers after 25 years of transition: Decreasing wage inequality in Slovenia," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 45(2).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Delogu, Marco & Lagravinese, Raffaele & Paolini, Dimitri & Resce, Giuliano, 2024. "Predicting dropout from higher education: Evidence from Italy," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    2. Bosio, Giulio & Leonardi, Marco, 2011. "The Impact of Bologna Process on the Graduate Labour Market: Demand and Supply," IZA Discussion Papers 5789, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. CARRIERI, Vincenzo & D'AMATO, Marcello & ZOTTI, Roberto, 2013. "Selective Admission Tests and Students' Performances. Evidence from a Natural Experiment in a Large Italian University," CELPE Working Papers 0/00, CELPE - Centre of Labour Economics and Economic Policy, University of Salerno, Italy.
    4. Daniele Bondonio & Fabio Berton, 2018. "The Impact of Degree Duration on Higher Education Participation: Evidence from a Large‐scale Natural Experiment," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 80(5), pages 905-930, October.
    5. Giorgio Di Pietro, 2012. "The Bologna Process and widening participation in university education: new evidence from Italy," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 39(3), pages 357-374, August.
    6. By Vincenzo Carrieri & Marcello D’Amato & Roberto Zotti, 2015. "On the causal effects of selective admission policies on students’ performances: evidence from a quasi-experiment in a large Italian university," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 67(4), pages 1034-1056.
    7. Bernhard Enzi & Benedikt Siegler, 2016. "The Impact of the Bologna Reform on Student Outcomes – Evidence from Exogenous Variation in Regional Supply of Bachelor Programs in Germany," Working Papers 165, Bavarian Graduate Program in Economics (BGPE).
    8. Hahm, Sabrina & Kluve, Jochen, 2016. "Effects of the Bologna Reform on educational outcomes: Micro evidence from Germany," Ruhr Economic Papers 639, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    9. Caner, Asena & Demirel-Derebasoglu, Merve & Okten, Cagla, 2019. "Attainment and Gender Equality in Higher Education: Evidence from a Large Scale Expansion," IZA Discussion Papers 12711, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Carmen Aina, 2010. "The Determinants of Educational Attainment, University Drop-out and Time-to-Degree. A focus on Italy," Working Papers 132, SEMEQ Department - Faculty of Economics - University of Eastern Piedmont.
    11. Gitto, Lara & Minervini, Leo Fulvio & Monaco, Luisa, 2016. "University dropouts in Italy: Are supply side characteristics part of the problem?," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 108-116.
    12. Biancardi, Daniele & Bratti, Massimiliano, 2019. "The effect of introducing a Research Evaluation Exercise on student enrolment: Evidence from Italy," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 73-93.
    13. Lerche, Katharina, 2016. "The effect of the Bologna Process on the duration of studies," University of Göttingen Working Papers in Economics 287, University of Goettingen, Department of Economics.
    14. Roberto Zotti, 2015. "Should I Stay Or Should I Go? Dropping Out From University: An Empirical Analysis Of Students’ Performances," Working Papers 70, AlmaLaurea Inter-University Consortium.
    15. Bernhard Enzi & Benedikt Siegler, 2016. "The Impact of the Bologna Reform on Student Outcomes Evidence from Exogenous Variation in Regional Supply of Bachelor Programs in Germany," ifo Working Paper Series 225, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich.
    16. Hahm, Sabrina & Kluve, Jochen, 2016. "Effects of the Bologna Reform on Educational Outcomes: Micro Evidence from Germany," IZA Discussion Papers 10201, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    17. Benedikt Siegler, 2015. "Microeconometric Evaluations of Education Policies," ifo Beiträge zur Wirtschaftsforschung, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, number 57.
    18. Biancardi, Daniele & Bratti, Massimiliano, 2018. "The Effect of the First Italian Research Evaluation Exercise on Student Enrolment Choices," IZA Discussion Papers 11302, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    19. Kroher, Martina & Leuze, Kathrin & Thomsen, Stephan L. & Trunzer, Johannes, 2021. "Did the "Bologna Process" Achieve Its Goals? 20 Years of Empirical Evidence on Student Enrolment, Study Success and Labour Market Outcomes," IZA Discussion Papers 14757, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    20. Gitto, Lara & Minervini, Leo Fulvio & Monaco, Luisa, 2012. "University dropouts: supply-side issues in Italy," MPRA Paper 56656, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Nov 2013.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:reihed:v:60:y:2019:i:2:d:10.1007_s11162-018-9512-4. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.