Student Responses to Merit Scholarship Retention Rules

Christopher Cornwell, Kyung Hee Lee and David Mustard ()

Journal of Human Resources, 2005, vol. 40, issue 4, 895-917

Abstract: A common justification for state-sponsored merit scholarships like Georgia’s HOPE program is to promote academic achievement. However, grade-based retention rules encourage other behavioral responses. Using longitudinal records of enrolled undergraduates at the University of Georgia between 1989 and 1997, we estimate the effects of HOPE on course-taking, treating nonresidents as a control group. First, we find that HOPE decreased full-load enrollments and increased course withdrawals among resident freshmen. Second, the scholarship’s influence on course-taking behavior is concentrated on students whose predicted freshmen GPAs place them on or below the scholarship-retention margin. Third, HOPE substantially increased summer school credits.

Date: 2005
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (61)

Downloads: (external link)
http://jhr.uwpress.org/cgi/reprint/XL/4/895
A subscription is required to access pdf files. Pay per article is available.

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:uwp:jhriss:v:40:y:2005:i:4:p:895-917

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of Human Resources from University of Wisconsin Press
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().