Minimum Grade Requirements for Economics Majors: Effects on Enrollments and Student Learning

Stephen Schmidt

AEA Papers and Proceedings, 2021, vol. 111, 107-11

Abstract: This paper studies one college's policy requiring minimum grades in core courses for completion of the economics major. The policy reduced majors by approximately 6 percent. Grades of C- and D (requiring students to retake the course) dropped substantially, while grades of C (the minimum acceptable grade) did not change, and grades from C+ to B rose. Difference-in-difference analysis suggests that the policy caused the grade shift. Because C grades did not change and grades as high as B increased, I conclude that the policy caused increased effort by students who were below and somewhat above the performance standard.

JEL-codes: A22 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/pandp.20211046 (application/pdf)
https://doi.org/10.3886/E136822V1 (text/html)
https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/pandp.20211046.ds (application/zip)
Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.

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

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aea:apandp:v:111:y:2021:p:107-11

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.aeaweb.org/subscribe.html

DOI: 10.1257/pandp.20211046

Access Statistics for this article

AEA Papers and Proceedings is currently edited by William Johnson and Kelly Markel

More articles in AEA Papers and Proceedings from American Economic Association Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Michael P. Albert ().