Dynamic effort choice in high school: costs and benefits of an academic track

Olivier de Groote ()
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Olivier de Groote: TSE-R - Toulouse School of Economics - UT Capitole - Université Toulouse Capitole - UT - Université de Toulouse - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement

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Abstract: I investigate high school tracking policies using a dynamic discrete choice model of study programs and unobserved effort. I estimate the model using data from Flanders (Belgium) and perform an ex ante evaluation of a policy that encourages underperforming students to switch to less academically oriented programs. This reduces grade retention by a third and dropout by 11%. Although it decreases college enrollment, the decrease in college graduation is small and insignificant. I also show that modeling effort is important; otherwise, smaller decreases in grade retention and dropout and larger decreases in college enrollment and graduation would be predicted.

Date: 2025
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-05027246v1
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Published in Journal of Labor Economics, inPress, ⟨10.1086/726702⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05027246

DOI: 10.1086/726702

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