The Effects of Grade Retention on Human Capital Accumulation

Alex Solis

No 2017:15, Working Paper Series from Uppsala University, Department of Economics

Abstract: Grade retention is a widely used educational policy promoting human capital. However, its benefi ts and costs are still under debate. Retention may a ffect learning, cognitive and psychological capacities, educational attainment and the lifetime income (through the timing of entry to the labor market). This paper estimates the causal eff ects of grade retention on all these outcomes exploiting a retention rule based on the school GPA that enables a regression discontinuity design. I use administrative data from a 15-years panel on the universe of students in the educational system in Chile. The fi ndings are fourfold. First, (marginally) retained students achieve the same amount of education than (marginally) promoted (i.e., high school graduation, higher education enrollment, etc.). Second, they improve their cognitive ability (measured by test scores) in the short and the long run. Third, induces parents to increase parental time investments and expectations. Fourth,enhances student psychological traits, and overall learning experience.

Keywords: Grade retention; attainment; cognitive achievement; high school graduation; parental investmet; self-esteem; learning. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I21 I26 I30 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 73 pages
Date: 2017-03-31, Revised 2017-12-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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