Automatic grade promotion and student performance: Evidence from Brazil

Martin Foureaux Koppensteiner

Journal of Development Economics, 2014, vol. 107, issue C, 277-290

Abstract: This paper examines the effect of automatic grade promotion on academic achievement in 1993 public primary schools in Brazil. A difference-in-differences approach that exploits variation over time and across schools in the grade promotion regime allows the identification of the treatment effect of automatic promotion. I find a negative and significant effect of about 7% of a standard deviation on math test scores. I provide evidence in support of the interpretation of the estimates as a disincentive effect of automatic promotion. The findings contribute to the understanding of retention policies by focussing on the ex-ante effect of repetition and are important for more complete cost–benefit considerations of grade retention.

Keywords: Grade retention; Automatic promotion; Incentives to learn; Primary education; Brazil (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H52 I21 I28 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (17)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030438781300179X
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
Working Paper: Automatic Grade Promotion and Student Performance: Evidence from Brazil (2013)
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:eee:deveco:v:107:y:2014:i:c:p:277-290

DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2013.12.007

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Development Economics is currently edited by M. R. Rosenzweig

More articles in Journal of Development Economics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().