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Impatience And Academic Performance. Less Effort And Less Ambitious Goals

Author

Listed:
  • Maria De Paola
  • Francesca Gioia

    (Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche, Statistiche e Finanziarie, Università della Calabria)

Abstract

In a simple theoretical model we show that impatience affects academic performance through two different channels: impatient students spend less effort in studying activities and set less ambitious objectives in terms of grades at exams. As a consequence, the relationship between impatience and academic success may vary according to how performance is measured. Using data from a sample of Italian undergraduate students, we find a strong negative relationship between impatience and both the average grade at exams and the probability of graduating with honours. Conversely, a negative but not statistically significant correlation emerges between time preferences and both the number of credits earned in the three years following enrolment and the probability of timely graduation. Our findings are robust to alternative measures of impatience and controlling for family background characteristics, for cognitive abilities and for risk preferences.

Suggested Citation

  • Maria De Paola & Francesca Gioia, 2013. "Impatience And Academic Performance. Less Effort And Less Ambitious Goals," Working Papers 201302, Università della Calabria, Dipartimento di Economia, Statistica e Finanza "Giovanni Anania" - DESF.
    • Handle: RePEc:clb:wpaper:201302
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    File URL: http://www.ecostat.unical.it/RePEc/WorkingPapers/WP02_2013.pdf
    File Function: First version, 2013-02
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    Citations

    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. Impatience and academic performance
      by UDADISI in UDADISI on 2013-03-18 15:42:00

    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Daniel Horn & Hubert Kiss Janos, 2020. "Do individuals with children value the future more?," CERS-IE WORKING PAPERS 2010, Institute of Economics, Centre for Economic and Regional Studies.
    2. De Paola, Maria & Gioia, Francesca, 2013. "Does Patience Matter for Marriage Stability? Some Evidence from Italy," IZA Discussion Papers 7769, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Maria Paola & Francesca Gioia, 2017. "Does patience matter in marriage stability? Some evidence from Italy," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 15(2), pages 549-577, June.
    4. Pablo Brañas-Garza & Diego Jorrat & Antonio M. Espín & Angel Sánchez, 2023. "Paid and hypothetical time preferences are the same: lab, field and online evidence," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 26(2), pages 412-434, April.
    5. Non, Arjan & Tempelaar, Dirk, 2016. "Time preferences, study effort, and academic performance," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 36-61.
    6. De Paola, Maria & Scoppa, Vincenzo, 2015. "Procrastination, academic success and the effectiveness of a remedial program," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 217-236.
    7. Ferman, Bruno & Fontes, Luiz Felipe, 2020. "Discriminating Behavior: Evidence from teachers’ grading bias," MPRA Paper 100400, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Time preferences; impatience; human capital; academic success;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I20 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - General
    • D03 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Behavioral Microeconomics: Underlying Principles
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
    • J01 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General - - - Labor Economics: General

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