Lasting Effects of Retaking College Admission Exams

Veronica Frisancho (), Sebastian Gallegos and Constanza Gonzalez ()
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Veronica Frisancho: CAF - Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Constanza Gonzalez: Universidad Adolfo Ibañez

No 18467, IZA Discussion Papers from IZA Network @ LISER

Abstract: Do second chances at a high-stakes admission exam yield long-term gains? Leveraging fifteen years of Chilean administrative data and an RDD, we examine the causal effects of retaking on educational and labor market trajectories. Narrowly missing a preferred program cutoff triggers a 44% increase in retaking, leading to substantial score gains (0.27 SD) and improved placement and enrollment chances. However, these immediate gains do not persist. Retakers graduate at the same rate and from programs with similar earnings and employability profiles as their counterfactual peers. Our results suggest that retaking serves as a reshuffling mechanism yielding null net welfare gains.

Keywords: high-stakes exams; college admissions; exam retaking; regression discontinuity; Chile; educational trajectories; labor market outcomes; centralized admission systems (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I23 I24 I28 J24 J62 N36 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu and nep-lma
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Working Paper: Lasting Effects of Retaking College Admission Exams (2026)
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