Advanced Search
MyIDEAS: Login

The effects of attendance on academic performance: panel data evidence for Introductory Microeconomics

Contents:

Author Info

  • Luca Stanca

    (Economics Department - University of Milan Bicocca)

Abstract

This paper presents new evidence on the effects of attendance on academic performance. We exploit a large panel data set for Introductory Microeconomics students to explicitly take into account the effect of unobservable factors correlated with attendance, such as ability, effort and motivation. We find that neither proxy variables nor instrumental variables provide a viable solution to the omitted variable bias. Panel estimators indicate that attendance has a positive and significant impact on performance. Lecture and classes have a similar effect on performance individually, although their impact cannot be identified separately. Overall, the results indicate that, after controlling for unobservable student characteristics, teaching has an important independent effect on learning.

Download Info

If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
File URL: http://128.118.178.162/eps/hew/papers/0411/0411003.pdf
Download Restriction: no

Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by EconWPA in its series HEW with number 0411003.

as in new window
Length: 29 pages
Date of creation: 10 Nov 2004
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:wpa:wuwphe:0411003

Note: Type of Document - pdf; pages: 29
Contact details of provider:
Web page: http://128.118.178.162

Related research

Keywords: academic achievement; attendance; panel data;

Other versions of this item:

Find related papers by JEL classification:

This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

References

References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
as in new window
  1. Ann Kirby & Brendan McElroy, 2003. "The Effect of Attendance on Grade for First Year Economics Students in University College Cork," The Economic and Social Review, Economic and Social Studies, vol. 34(3), pages 311–326.
  2. Siegfried, John J & Fels, Rendigs, 1979. "Research on Teaching College Economics: A Survey," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 17(3), pages 923-69, September.
  3. Massimiliano Bratti & Stefano Staffolani, 2002. "Student time allocation and educational production functions," HEW 0207001, EconWPA.
  4. Pritchett, Lant & Filmer, Deon, 1999. "What education production functions really show: a positive theory of education expenditures," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 223-239, April.
  5. Dennis Coates, 2003. "Education production functions using instructional time as an input," Education Economics, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 11(3), pages 273-292.
  6. Durden, Garey C & Ellis, Larry V, 1995. "The Effects of Attendance on Student Learning in Principles of Economics," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 85(2), pages 343-46, May.
  7. Edward P. Lazear, 2001. "Educational Production," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 116(3), pages 777-803, August.
  8. Petra E. Todd & Kenneth I. Wolpin, 2003. "On The Specification and Estimation of The Production Function for Cognitive Achievement," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 113(485), pages F3-F33, February.
  9. Dolton, Peter & Marcenaro, Oscar D. & Navarro, Lucia, 2003. "The effective use of student time: a stochastic frontier production function case study," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 22(6), pages 547-560, December.
  10. Stephen Devadoss & John Foltz, 1996. "Evaluation of Factors Influencing Student Class Attendance and Performance," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 78(3), pages 499-507.
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 in new window

Cited by:
  1. C F Chen & Kwok Tong Soo, 2009. "Some university students are more equal than others: Evidence from England," Working Papers 600480, Lancaster University Management School, Economics Department.
  2. Arulampalam, Wiji & Naylor, Robin & Smith, Jeremy, 2008. "Am I Missing Something? The Effects of Absence from Class on Student Performance," IZA Discussion Papers 3749, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  3. Tsui-Fang Lin & Jennjou Chen, 2006. "Cumulative class attendance and exam performance," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 13(14), pages 937-942.
  4. Kwok Tong Soo, 2009. "Estimating the production function of university students," Working Papers 600466, Lancaster University Management School, Economics Department.
  5. Andrietti, Vincenzo & D´Addazio, Rosaria & Velasco, Carlos, . "Class Attendance and Academic Performance among Spanish Economics Students," Open Access publications from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid info:hdl:10016/5230, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid.
  6. Jennjou Chen & Tsui-Fang Lin, 2008. "Does Downloading PowerPoint Slides Before the Lecture Lead to Better Student Achievement?," International Review of Economic Education, Economics Network, University of Bristol, vol. 7(2), pages 9-18.
  7. Martins, Pedro S. & Walker, Ian, 2006. "Student Achievement and University Classes: Effects of Attendance, Size, Peers, and Teachers," IZA Discussion Papers 2490, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).

Lists

This item is not listed on Wikipedia, on a reading list or among the top items on IDEAS.

Statistics

Access and download statistics

Corrections

When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wpa:wuwphe:0411003

For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (EconWPA).

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 references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form.

If the full references list an item that is present in RePEc, but the system did not link 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 profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

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