Higher Education Reform, Student Time Allocation and Academic Performance in Italy: Evidence from a Faculty of Economics

Posted: 31 Jul 2010

See all articles by Massimiliano Bratti

Massimiliano Bratti

Università degli Studi di Milano - DEAS; Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)

Chiara Broccolini

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Stefano Staffolani

Polytechnic University of Marche - Faculty of Economics

Date Written: July 31, 2010

Abstract

In this paper we investigate the effect of the restructuring of university studies that took place in Italy after the introduction of the «3 2» reform on student time allocation and performance. We use data from an Economics Faculty and propensity score matching, which allow us to account for many confounding factors that are likely to affect the before-after reform comparison, to investigate changes in student time allocation and performance in the first-year exams. Our analysis provides lower bound estimates of the change in lecture attendance, self-study time and student performance after the reform, showing that despite a decrease in workload, student performance measured in terms of average grades and of number of exam attempts failed improved. We argue that although this can be explained either by an increase in university efficiency or by grade inflation, several pieces of evidence support the second explanation.

Keywords: Economics, Higher Education, Italy, Reform, Performance, Student, Time Allocation

JEL Classification: C14, I21, I28

Suggested Citation

Bratti, Massimiliano and Broccolini, Chiara and Staffolani, Stefano, Higher Education Reform, Student Time Allocation and Academic Performance in Italy: Evidence from a Faculty of Economics (July 31, 2010). Rivista Italiana degli Economisti, Vol. 2, 2010, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1651528

Massimiliano Bratti (Contact Author)

Università degli Studi di Milano - DEAS ( email )

Via Conservatorio, 7
I-20122 Milano
Italy

Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

Chiara Broccolini

affiliation not provided to SSRN ( email )

No Address Available

Stefano Staffolani

Polytechnic University of Marche - Faculty of Economics ( email )

Piazzale Martelli, 8
60121 Ancona
Italy

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