IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ireced/v27y2018icp16-23.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Teaching economics to the masses: The effects of student help centers on academic outcomes

Author

Listed:
  • Cobb, Steven L.
  • McPherson, Michael A.
  • Molina, David J.
  • Quintanilla, John
  • Rasmussen, Elizabeth
  • Rous, Jeffrey J.

Abstract

Many institutions of higher education have some form of voluntary peer tutoring. There have been a number of efforts to examine the effects of such programs on student outcomes. Many of these fail to acknowledge the possibility of self-selection bias. Should such endogeneity exist, estimates regarding the extent to which help centers improve student performance will be biased. We examine the determinants of student participation in peer tutoring among students taking Principles of Economics, and we test for self-selection bias. Finally, we examine the factors that affect student performance in these classes over two semesters – approximately 1400 students. We find that students who live a greater distance from campus are less likely to participate; student ethnicity and gender also affect this choice. We also find that the number of visits to our help center is exogenous. Finally, we find that supplemental instruction significantly improves student performance.

Suggested Citation

  • Cobb, Steven L. & McPherson, Michael A. & Molina, David J. & Quintanilla, John & Rasmussen, Elizabeth & Rous, Jeffrey J., 2018. "Teaching economics to the masses: The effects of student help centers on academic outcomes," International Review of Economics Education, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 16-23.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ireced:v:27:y:2018:i:c:p:16-23
    DOI: 10.1016/j.iree.2018.01.005
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1477388018300021
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.iree.2018.01.005?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Douglas Staiger & James H. Stock, 1997. "Instrumental Variables Regression with Weak Instruments," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 65(3), pages 557-586, May.
    2. Pm Horn & Ai Jansen, 2009. "An Investigation Into The Impact Of Tutorials On The Performance Of Economics Students," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 77(1), pages 179-189, March.
    3. Anthony L. Loviscek & Norman R. Cloutier, 1997. "Supplemental Instruction and the Enhancement of Student Performance in Economics Principles," The American Economist, Sage Publications, vol. 41(2), pages 70-76, October.
    4. Vincent G. Munley & Eoghan Garvey & Michael J. McConnell, 2010. "The Effectiveness of Peer Tutoring on Student Achievement at the University Level," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 100(2), pages 277-282, May.
    5. Heckman, James, 2013. "Sample selection bias as a specification error," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 31(3), pages 129-137.
    6. Wendy A. Stock & Kevin Ward & Justin Folsom & Teresa Borrenpohl & Sophie Mumford & Zach Pershin & Danielle Carriere & Heather Smart, 2013. "Cheap and Effective: The Impact of Student-Led Recitation Classes on Learning Outcomes in Introductory Economics," The Journal of Economic Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(1), pages 1-16, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. McCausland, David & Pouliakas, Konstantinos & Theodossiou, Ioannis, 2005. "Some are Punished and Some are Rewarded: A Study of the Impact of Performance Pay on Job Satisfaction," MPRA Paper 14243, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Hu, Juncheng, 2021. "Do facilitation payments affect earnings management? Evidence from China," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    3. Rowell, David & Connelly, Luke, 2010. "Labour market outcomes for people with a spinal cord injury," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 8(2), pages 223-232, July.
    4. Hugo Benítez-Silva & Debra Dwyer & Wayne-Roy Gayle & Thomas Muench, 2008. "Expectations in micro data: rationality revisited," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 34(2), pages 381-416, March.
    5. Uwaifo Oyelere, Ruth, 2010. "Africa's education enigma? The Nigerian story," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(1), pages 128-139, January.
    6. Benitez-Silva, Hugo & Dwyer, Debra S., 2006. "Expectation formation of older married couples and the rational expectations hypothesis," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(2), pages 191-218, April.
    7. Volker Schöer & Debra Shepherd, 2013. "Compulsory tutorial programmes and performance in undergraduate microeconomics: A regression discontinuity design," Working Papers 27/2013, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics.
    8. Ariane Pailhé & Anne Solaz, 2019. "Is there a wage cost for employees in family‐friendly workplaces? The effect of different employer policies," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(5), pages 688-721, June.
    9. Dinh, Tami & Schultze, Wolfgang, 2022. "Accounting for R&D on the income statement? Evidence on non-discretionary vs. discretionary R&D capitalization under IFRS in Germany," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 46(C).
    10. Guilhem Bascle, 2008. "Controlling for endogeneity with instrumental variables in strategic management research," Post-Print hal-00576795, HAL.
    11. Richard A. Hunt & Mathew L. A. Hayward, 2018. "Value Creation Through Employer Loans: Evidence of Informal Lending to Employees at Small, Labor-Intensive Firms," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 29(2), pages 284-303, April.
    12. Filiz Garip, 2012. "An Integrated Analysis of Migration and Remittances: Modeling Migration as a Mechanism for Selection," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 31(5), pages 637-663, October.
    13. Benítez-Silva, Hugo & Eren, Selçuk & Heiland, Frank & Jiménez-Martín, Sergi, 2015. "How well do individuals predict the selling prices of their homes?," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 12-25.
    14. Dossè Mawussi DJAHINI-AFAWOUBO, 2023. "Niveau d’éducation et probabilité d’être employé dans le secteur informel au Togo," Region et Developpement, Region et Developpement, LEAD, Universite du Sud - Toulon Var, vol. 57, pages 29-48.
    15. Gabriel Jiménez & Steven Ongena & José‐Luis Peydró & Jesús Saurina, 2014. "Hazardous Times for Monetary Policy: What Do Twenty‐Three Million Bank Loans Say About the Effects of Monetary Policy on Credit Risk‐Taking?," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 82(2), pages 463-505, March.
    16. Mingfeng Lin & Nagpurnanand R. Prabhala & Siva Viswanathan, 2013. "Judging Borrowers by the Company They Keep: Friendship Networks and Information Asymmetry in Online Peer-to-Peer Lending," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 59(1), pages 17-35, August.
    17. Chen, Xiao & Huang, Bihong & Ye, Dezhu, 2019. "The Gender Gap in Peer-to-Peer Lending: Evidence from the People’s Republic of China," ADBI Working Papers 977, Asian Development Bank Institute.
    18. Theodossiou, I. & Vasileiou, E., 2007. "Making the risk of job loss a way of life: Does it affect job satisfaction?," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(2), pages 71-83, June.
    19. Xavier Giroud & Holger M. Mueller & Alex Stomper & Arne Westerkamp, 2012. "Snow and Leverage," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 25(3), pages 680-710.
    20. Riccardo Lucchetti & Stefano Staffolani & Alessandro Sterlacchini, 2004. "Computers, Wages and Working Hours in Italy," Giornale degli Economisti, GDE (Giornale degli Economisti e Annali di Economia), Bocconi University, vol. 63(3-4), pages 329-353, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Supplemental instruction; Student help centers; Self-selection bias;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • A22 - General Economics and Teaching - - Economic Education and Teaching of Economics - - - Undergraduate
    • A29 - General Economics and Teaching - - Economic Education and Teaching of Economics - - - Other

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ireced:v:27:y:2018:i:c:p:16-23. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/international-review-of-economics-education .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.