THE EFFECTIVENESS OF REMEDIAL COURSES IN ITALY: A FUZZY REGRESSION DISCONTINUITY DESIGN

Maria De Paola (m.depaola@unical.it) and Vincenzo Scoppa (v.scoppa@unical.it)

No 201114, Working Papers from Università della Calabria, Dipartimento di Economia, Statistica e Finanza "Giovanni Anania" - DESF

Abstract: We evaluate the effects on student achievement of a number of remedial courses provided by an Italian University. To identify the causal effect of remediation we use a Fuzzy Regression Discontinuity Design, relying on the fact that students whose performance at a placement test was below a certain cutoff were assigned to the treatment. We deal with partial compliance using the assignment rule as an instrumental variable for the effective attendance to remedial courses. From our analysis it emerges that students just below the cutoff, attending the remedial courses, acquire a higher number of credits compared to students just above the cutoff. We also find that remedial courses reduce the probability of dropping out from academic career. On the other hand, we do not find any statistically significant effect on the average grade obtained at passed exams.

Keywords: Remedial Courses; Tertiary Education; Public Policy; Fuzzy Regression Discontinuity Design; Instrumental Variables (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C26 I21 I23 I28 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 21 pages
Date: 2011-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu and nep-lab
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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http://www.ecostat.unical.it/RePEc/WorkingPapers/WP14_2011.pdf First version, 2011-11 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: The effectiveness of remedial courses in Italy: a fuzzy regression discontinuity design (2014)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:clb:wpaper:201114

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