Procrastination, Academic Success and the Effectiveness of a Remedial Program

Maria De Paola () and Vincenzo Scoppa ()
Additional contact information
Maria De Paola: University of Calabria

No 8021, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Procrastination produces harmful effects for human capital investments and studying activities. Using data from a large sample of Italian undergraduates, we measure procrastination with the actual behaviour of students, considering the delay in finalizing their university enrolment procedure. We firstly show that procrastination is a strong predictor of students' educational achievements. This result holds true controlling for quite reliable measures of cognitive abilities, a number of background characteristics and indicators of students' motivation. Secondly, we investigate, using a Regression Discontinuity Design, the effects of a remedial program in helping students with different propensity to procrastinate. We show that the policy especially advantages students who tend to procrastinate, suggesting that also policies not directly aimed at handling procrastination can help to solve self-control problems.

Keywords: dropout; procrastination; self-control; time preferences; time consistency; impatience; human capital; academic success; remedial courses (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D03 D91 I21 J01 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 26 pages
Date: 2014-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu and nep-hrm
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published - published in: Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 2015, 115, 217–236

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Related works:
Journal Article: Procrastination, academic success and the effectiveness of a remedial program (2015)
Working Paper: PROCRASTINATION, ACADEMIC SUCCESS AND THE EFFECTIVENESS OF A REMEDIAL PROGRAM (2014)
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