The Effects of Remedial Mathematics on the Learning of Economics: Evidence from a Natural Experiment

Johan N. M. Lagerlöf () and Andrew Seltzer ()

No 6895, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: This paper examines the effects of remedial mathematics on performance in university-level economics courses using a natural experiment. We study exam results prior and subsequent to the implementation of a remedial mathematics course that was compulsory for a sub-set of students and unavailable for the others, controlling for background variables. We find that, consistent with previous studies, the level of and performance in secondary-school mathematics have strong predictive power on students’ performance at university-level economics. However, we find relatively little evidence for a positive effect of remedial mathematics on student performance.

Keywords: differences-in-differences; quantile regressions; remedial mathematics; teaching of economics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A22 I20 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu
Date: Written 2008-07

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.cepr.org/pubs/dps/DP6895.asp (application/pdf)
CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:6895

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.cepr.org/pubs/dps/DP6895.asp

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers
Address: Centre for Economic Policy Research, 53--56 Great Sutton Street, London EC1V 0DG
Series data maintained by ().