IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ucp/jlabec/doi10.1086-719994.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Consequences of Letter Grades for Labor Market Outcomes and Student Behavior

Author

Listed:
  • Brandon Joel Tan

Abstract

I study the consequences of letter grades serving as coarse measures of academic achievement using university administrative data that record both the letter grade and the precise mark (0–100) received for each course that a given student takes. I exploit a regression discontinuity design with marks as the running variable. I find that receiving a better grade in a single class results in USD 32 greater monthly earnings after graduation, a 1.4% increase. I also find that marginal students who receive a worse grade take significantly easier courses and earn lower grades in future semesters.

Suggested Citation

  • Brandon Joel Tan, 2023. "The Consequences of Letter Grades for Labor Market Outcomes and Student Behavior," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 41(3), pages 565-588.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucp:jlabec:doi:10.1086/719994
    DOI: 10.1086/719994
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/719994
    Download Restriction: Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.
    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/719994
    Download Restriction: Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1086/719994?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.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Gholami, Mahdi & Muehlemann, Samuel, 2024. "Math Skills, Selection in Training Firms, and Post-Training Wages," VfS Annual Conference 2024 (Berlin): Upcoming Labor Market Challenges 302349, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    2. Collins, Matthew & Lundstedt, Jonas, 2024. "The effects of more informative grading on student outcomes," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 218(C), pages 514-549.
    3. Kenneth Khoo & Jaclyn Neo, 2023. "Gender gaps in legal education: The impact of class participation assessments," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 20(4), pages 1070-1137, December.

    More about this item

    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:ucp:jlabec:doi:10.1086/719994. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Journals Division (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/JOLE .

    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.