Do Reforms Aimed at Reducing Time to Graduation Work? Evidence from the Italian Higher Education System

Davide Malacrino, Samuel Nocito and Raffaele Saggio

No 32659, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: This paper examines the impact of a reform aimed at expediting graduation times in Italian universities by reducing the number of exams students must pass to obtain the fixed number of credits required to graduate. Using event-study estimates that leverage the reform’s staggered implementation, we find that this policy change led to an increase in on-time graduation rates but also resulted in a decreased probability of employment one-year post-graduation. However, this negative effect reverses into a positive one in the medium run. We show that these patterns are explained by students using the time gained from earlier graduation to pursue additional educational qualifications in the year following graduation, an investment that ultimately leads to higher earnings in the medium run.

JEL-codes: I24 I26 I29 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-inv and nep-lab
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