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What is the cost of grade retention?

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  • Asma Benhenda

    (University College London, Institute of Education)

Abstract

This paper offers a new method to estimate the budgetary cost of grade retention that takes into account a) the impact of grade retention on students' school path; b) the dynamic impact of variations in grade retention on the flow of student enrolment across grades. Using administrative data on students in French secondary schools, I instrument retention by students' date of birth and find that the marginal impact of one year of retention is to increase the number of years of schooling by exactly one year. Modelling student enrolment with a discrete Markov chain model, I simulate a counterfactual scenario where grade retention is completely abolished. I find that budgetary savings increase only gradually and reach a steady state only when students who were entering primary school at the time of the abolition have left high school.

Suggested Citation

  • Asma Benhenda, 2018. "What is the cost of grade retention?," DoQSS Working Papers 18-07, Quantitative Social Science - UCL Social Research Institute, University College London.
    • Handle: RePEc:qss:dqsswp:1807
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    File URL: https://repec.ucl.ac.uk/REPEc/pdf/qsswp1807.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • I22 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Educational Finance; Financial Aid
    • J20 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - General

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