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Rational students and resit exams

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  • Kooreman, Peter

Abstract

Resit exams–extra opportunities to do an exam in the same academic year–are widely prevalent in European higher education, but uncommon in the US. I present a simple theoretical model to compare rational student behavior in the case of only one exam opportunity versus the case of two exam opportunities. Numerical examples for a wide range of plausible parameter values show that a second exam opportunity increases the ultimate passing probability only slightly, but strongly reduces the average total student effort.

Suggested Citation

  • Kooreman, Peter, 2013. "Rational students and resit exams," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 118(1), pages 213-215.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:118:y:2013:i:1:p:213-215
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2012.10.015
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Costrell, Robert M, 1994. "A Simple Model of Educational Standards," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(4), pages 956-971, September.
    2. De Paola, Maria & Scoppa, Vincenzo, 2011. "Frequency of examinations and student achievement in a randomized experiment," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(6), pages 1416-1429.
    3. Edward P. Lazear, 2006. "Speeding, Terrorism, and Teaching to the Test," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 121(3), pages 1029-1061.
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    Cited by:

    1. Rob Nijenkamp & Mark R Nieuwenstein & Ritske de Jong & Monicque M Lorist, 2016. "Do Resit Exams Promote Lower Investments of Study Time? Theory and Data from a Laboratory Study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(10), pages 1-19, October.
    2. Michaelis, Jochen & Schwanebeck, Benjamin, 2016. "Examination rules and student effort," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 65-68.
    3. Bratti, Massimiliano & Granato, Silvia & Havari, Enkelejda, 2024. "Another Chance: Number of Exam Retakes and University Students' Outcomes," IZA Discussion Papers 17400, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Frequency of examinations; Education production function; Rationality;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D01 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Microeconomic Behavior: Underlying Principles
    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education

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