"Does Class Attendance Affect Academic
Performance? Evidence from "D'Annunzio" University", with
V. Andrietti.
Submitted to Education Economics, February 2012.
Abstract:
This paper presents new evidence on the effects of class
attendance on academic performance. We analyse survey data
collected for an Introductory Macroeconomics Course at "G.
D'Annunzio" University of Chieti and Pescara (Italy) in the
academic year 2004-2005, matched to administrative data.
Using OLS "proxy variables" regressions to capture the
effect of unobservable student factors correlated with
attendance, we still find a positive and significant effect
of attendance on academic performance. However, while the
bias correction goes in the expected direction, when using
panel data estimators to wipe out time invariant individual
specific unobservables, the attendance effect disappears.
"Class Attendance and Academic Performance
Among Spanish Economics Students", with V. Andrietti and
Carlos Velasco Gómez (2011).
Abstract:
This paper presents new evidence on the effect of class
attendance on academic performance. We analyse survey data
collected for an Introductory Econometrics Course at the
Facultad de Ciencias Sociales y Jurídicas of Universidad
Carlos III de Madrid, matched to administrative data.
Although
OLS regressions show a positive and significant effect of
attendance on academic performance, this effect disappears
when we control for unobservable student
characteristics potentially correlated with attendance, by
means of proxies regressors for ability, effort and
motivation. While Hausman endogeneity tests reject
exogeneity of attendance in most specifications, and the
available instrumental variables fail to account for the
potential error correlation not captured by the controls,
the upward bias we would expect in the attendance
coefficient makes our results interesting compared to
previous literature, pointing towards a nonsignificant (economically
and statistically) effect of class attendance on academic
performance.
