Shot Across the Bow, Stigma or Selection? The Effect of Repeating a Class on Educational Attainment

Michael Fertig

No 1266, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: The German practice of compelling weak students to repeat a class has come under heavy criticism recently. Many observers fear that this practice is, at best, useless or even counterproductive. However, little is known so far on the consequences of having to repeat a class, as compared to be confronted with new course material in the next class. This paper, therefore, aims at generating empirical evidence on the effect of class repetition on individual educational attainment. Since an experimental study is precluded, we utilize an instrumental variable approach to control for unobserved heterogeneity between respondents. Our estimation results suggest that there exists a negative association between repeating a class and educational attainment. However, taking unobserved heterogeneity into account yields a statistically significant and quantitatively substantial positive effect of class repetition on educational outcomes.

Keywords: schooling degree; instrumental variables estimation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I21 J13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 15 pages
Date: 2004-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu and nep-ure
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Working Paper: Shot Across the Bow, Stigma or Selection? - The Effect of Repeating a Class on Educational Attainment (2004)
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