IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/edecon/v13y2005i1p85-108.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A comparison of A-level performance in economics and business studies: How much more difficult is economics?

Author

Listed:
  • Barry Reilly
  • Ray Bachan

Abstract

This paper uses A-Level Information System data to compare academic performance in two subjects often viewed as relatively close substitutes for one another at A-level. The important role of GCSE achievement is confirmed for both subjects. There is evidence of strong gender effects and variation in outcomes across Examination Boards. A counterfactual exercise suggests that if the sample of Business Studies candidates had studied Economics nearly 40% of those who obtained a grade C or better in the former subject would not have done so in the latter. The opposite exercise suggests that 12% more Economics candidates would have achieved a grade C or better if they had taken Business Studies. In order to render a Business Studies A-level grade comparable with an Economics one in terms of relative difficulty, we estimate that a downward adjustment of 1.5 UCAS points should be applied to the former subject. This adjustment is lower than that suggested by correction factors based on conventional subject pair analysis for these two subjects

Suggested Citation

  • Barry Reilly & Ray Bachan, 2005. "A comparison of A-level performance in economics and business studies: How much more difficult is economics?," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(1), pages 85-108.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:edecon:v:13:y:2005:i:1:p:85-108
    DOI: 10.1080/0964529042000325225
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/0964529042000325225
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/0964529042000325225?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. Machin, Stephen & Oswald, Andrew, 2000. "UK Economics and the Future Supply of Academic Economists," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 110(464), pages 334-349, June.
    2. Adnett, Nick & Bougheas, Spiros & Davies, Peter, 2002. "Market-based reforms of public schooling: some unpleasant dynamics," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 21(4), pages 323-330, August.
    3. Chesher, Andrew & Irish, Margaret, 1987. "Residual analysis in the grouped and censored normal linear model," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 34(1-2), pages 33-61.
    4. Machin, Stephen J & Stewart, Mark B, 1990. "Unions and the Financial Performance of British Private Sector Establishments," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 5(4), pages 327-350, Oct.-Dec..
    5. Booth, Alison L & Burton, Jonathan & Mumford, Karen, 2000. "The Position of Women in UK Academic Economics," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 110(464), pages 312-333, June.
    6. John Ashworth & J. Lynne Evans, 2001. "Modeling Student Subject Choice at Secondary and Tertiary Level: A Cross-Section Study," The Journal of Economic Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(4), pages 311-320, January.
    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. Ray Bachan & Michael Barrow, 2006. "Modelling Curriculum Choice at A-level: Why is Business Studies More Popular than Economics?," International Review of Economic Education, Economics Network, University of Bristol, vol. 5(2), pages 58-80.
    2. Hirschel Kasper, 2008. "Sources of Economics Majors: More Biology, Less Business," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 75(2), pages 457-472, August.
    3. Yoko Niimi & Barry Reilly, 2011. "Gender Differences In Remittance Behavior: Evidence From Vietnam," The Singapore Economic Review (SER), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 56(02), pages 215-237.

    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. Tsegay Gebrekidan Tekleselassie, 2017. "Subjective Wellbeing and Institutions: The Case of Rural Ethiopia," Working Papers 016, Policy Studies Institute.
    2. James Mitchell & Richard J. Smith & Martin R. Weale, 2013. "Efficient Aggregation Of Panel Qualitative Survey Data," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(4), pages 580-603, June.
    3. Ray Bachan & Barry Reilly & Robert Witt, 2014. "Team performance and race: evidence from the English and French national soccer teams," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(13), pages 1535-1546, May.
    4. William J. Moore & Robert J. Newman & Peter J. Sloane & Jeremy D. Steely, 2002. "Productivity Effects of Research Assessment Exercises," Departmental Working Papers 2002-15, Department of Economics, Louisiana State University.
    5. Mark B. Stewart, 2009. "The Estimation Of Pensioner Equivalence Scales Using Subjective Data," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 55(4), pages 907-929, December.
    6. Ward-Warmedinger, Melanie & Euwals, Rob, 2000. "What Matters Most: Teaching or Research? Empirical Evidence on the Remuneration of British Academics," CEPR Discussion Papers 2628, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    7. William Moore & Robert Newman & Geoffrey Turnbull, 2007. "The Experience-Earnings Profile: Productivity-Augmenting or Purely Contractual? Evidence from the UK," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 28(3), pages 417-435, July.
    8. Nick Adnett & Peter Davies, 2005. "Competition between or within schools? Re-assessing school choice," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(1), pages 109-121.
    9. William J. Moore & Robert J. Newman & M. Dek Terrell, 2002. "Academic Economists' Pay and Productivity: A Tale of Two Countries," Departmental Working Papers 2002-16, Department of Economics, Louisiana State University.
    10. Lindsay M. Tedds, 2005. "Keeping It Off The Books: An Empirical Investigation Into the Characteristics of Firms That Engage In Tax Non-Compliance," Department of Economics Working Papers 2005-01, McMaster University.
    11. Tekleselassie, Tsegay Gebrekidan, 2016. "Three essays on the impact of institutions and policies on socio-economic outcomes," Economics PhD Theses 1316, Department of Economics, University of Sussex Business School.
    12. Litchfield, Julie & Reilly, Barry & Veneziani, Mario, 2012. "An analysis of life satisfaction in Albania: An heteroscedastic ordered probit model approach," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 81(3), pages 731-741.
    13. Ray Barrell, 1999. "Employment Security and European Labour Demand: A Panel Study Across 16 Industries," National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) Discussion Papers 148, National Institute of Economic and Social Research.
    14. Cheti Nicoletti & Marco Francesconi, 2006. "Intergenerational mobility and sample selection in short panels," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(8), pages 1265-1293.
    15. Philip Stevens, 2005. "The job satisfaction of English academics and their intentions to quit academe," Labor and Demography 0512005, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. William J. Moore & Robert J. Newman & Dek Terrell, 2007. "Academic Pay in the United Kingdom and the United States: The Differential Returns to Productivity and the Lifetime Earnings Gap," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 73(3), pages 717-732, January.
    17. Cheti Nicoletti, 2010. "Poverty analysis with missing data: alternative estimators compared," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 38(1), pages 1-22, February.
    18. Nicoletti, Cheti, 2008. "Multiple sample selection in the estimation of intergenerational occupational mobility," ISER Working Paper Series 2008-20, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    19. William J. Moore & Robert J. Newman & Geoffrey K. Turnbull, 2002. "The Experience-Earnings Profile: Productivity-Augmenting or Purely Contractual?," Departmental Working Papers 2002-13, Department of Economics, Louisiana State University.
    20. Andrés Langebaek R. & Diego Vásquez E., 2007. "Determinantes de la actividad innovadora en la industria manufacturera colombiana," Borradores de Economia 433, Banco de la Republica de Colombia.

    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:taf:edecon:v:13:y:2005:i:1:p:85-108. 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/CEDE20 .

    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.