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Dynamic Effort Choice in High School: Costs and Benefits of an Academic Track

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  • Olivier de Groote

    (TSE-R - Toulouse School of Economics - UT Capitole - Université Toulouse Capitole - Comue de Toulouse - Communauté d'universités et établissements de Toulouse - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement)

Abstract

I estimate a dynamic model of educational decisions that allows for observed and unobserved differences in initial ability. Each year students choose their level of effort by deciding over the academic level of their study program and the likelihood of end-of-year performance. Good performance is costly, but necessary to continue in the program. This replaces traditional approaches, which assume performance follows an exogenous law of motion. I use the model to investigate high school tracking policies and obtain the following results: (1) encouraging underperforming students to switch to less academic programs substantially reduces grade retention and dropout, (2) the resulting decrease in the number of college graduates is small and insignicant, and (3) a model that assumes performance is exogenous ignores a change in unobserved study effort, leading to large biases and falsely concluding there would be an important negative impact on graduation rates in higher education.

Suggested Citation

  • Olivier de Groote, 2023. "Dynamic Effort Choice in High School: Costs and Benefits of an Academic Track," Working Papers hal-04953656, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-04953656
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-04953656v1
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    Cited by:

    1. is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Olivier de Groote & Anaïs Fabre & Margaux Luflade & Arnaud Maurel, 2025. "Sequential College Admission Mechanisms and Off-Platform Options," Working Papers hal-05212878, HAL.
    3. Olivier De Groote & Koen Declercq, 2021. "Tracking and specialization of high schools: Heterogeneous effects of school choice," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 36(7), pages 898-916, November.
    4. Lorenzo Navarini & Dieter Verhaest, 2024. "Returns to Education and Overeducation Risk: A Dynamic Model," Working Papers of Department of Economics, Leuven 745260, KU Leuven, Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB), Department of Economics, Leuven.

    More about this item

    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • C61 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling - - - Optimization Techniques; Programming Models; Dynamic Analysis
    • I26 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Returns to Education
    • I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy

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