Learning about Academic Ability and the College Dropout Decision

Todd Stinebrickner and Ralph Stinebrickner

Journal of Labor Economics, 2012, vol. 30, issue 4, 707 - 748

Abstract: Research examining the educational attainment of low-income students has often focused on financial factors such as credit constraints. We use unique longitudinal data to provide direct evidence about a prominent alternative explanation--that departures from school arise as students learn about their academic ability or grade performance. Examining college dropout, we find that this explanation plays a very prominent role; our simulations indicate that dropout between the first and second years would be reduced by 40% if no learning occurred about grade performance/academic ability. The article also contributes directly to the understanding of gender differences in educational attainment.

Date: 2012
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (211)

Downloads: (external link)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/666525 (application/pdf)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/666525 (text/html)
Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.

Related works:
Working Paper: Learning about Academic Ability and the College Drop-out Decision (2009)
Working Paper: Learning About Academic Ability and the College Drop-Out Decision (2008)
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:ucp:jlabec:doi:10.1086/666525

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of Labor Economics from University of Chicago Press
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Journals Division ().