The effect of grade retention on educational and labor market outcomes
ARTICLE
Eric R. Eide, Mark H. Showalter
Economics of Education Review Volume 20, Number 6 ISSN 0272-7757 Publisher: Elsevier Ltd
Abstract
Grade retention is a major issue in the ongoing debate over how to improve primary and secondary education in the United States. This paper examines the retention decision and its empirical effects using an economic framework. Within our model, the retention decision is endogenous with respect to such observables as dropping out of school and labor market earnings and this endogeneity needs to be accounted for in empirical work. In the empirical section of the paper we use the High School and Beyond (HSB) data set to examine the effects of retention on the probability of dropping out of high school and on labor market earnings several years after the student has entered the workforce. We account for the endogeneity of grade retention by using instrumental variables (IV) estimation where the key instrument is based on exogenous variation across states in kindergarten entry dates.
Citation
Eide, E.R. & Showalter, M.H. The effect of grade retention on educational and labor market outcomes. Economics of Education Review, 20(6), 563-576. Elsevier Ltd. Retrieved May 30, 2023 from https://www.learntechlib.org/p/206287/.
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Keywords
References
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