Do Learning Communities Increase First Year College Retention? Testing Sample Selection and External Validity of Randomized Control Trials

Tarek Azzam, Michael Bates and David Fairris
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Tarek Azzam: UCSB

No 202002, Working Papers from University of California at Riverside, Department of Economics

Abstract: Voluntary selection into experimental samples is ubiquitous and leads researchers to question the external validity of experimental findings. We introduce tests for sample selection on unobserved variables to discern the generalizability of randomized control trials. We estimate the impact of a learning community on first-year college retention using an RCT, and employ our tests in this setting. We compare observational and experimental estimates, considering the internal and external validity of both approaches. Intent-to-treat and local-average-treatment-effect estimates reveal no discernable programmatic effects, whereas observational estimates are significantly positive. The experimental sample is positively selected on unobserved characteristics suggesting limited external validity.

Keywords: External validity; college retention; selection on unobserved variables (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 I23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 54 Pages
Date: 2019-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ecm and nep-exp
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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https://economics.ucr.edu/repec/ucr/wpaper/202002.pdf First version, 2019 (application/pdf)

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Working Paper: Do Learning Communities Increase First Year College Retention? Testing Sample Selection and External Validity of Randomized Control Trials (2020)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ucr:wpaper:202002

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