The effect of introducing a Research Evaluation Exercise on student enrolment: Evidence from Italy
ARTICLE
Daniele Biancardi, Dipartimento di Scienze Aziendali, Economiche e Metodi Quantitativi, Italy ; Massimiliano Bratti, European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), Italy
Economics of Education Review Volume 69, Number 1, ISSN 0272-7757 Publisher: Elsevier Ltd
Abstract
This paper examines the impact of introducing a Research Evaluation Exercise (REE) on Italian undergraduate students’ enrolment choices. We investigate whether subject groups in higher education institutions (HEIs) that performed better in the REE also benefited from more student enrolments and the enrolment of students with better entry qualifications. To this aim, we use a before-after estimator that exploits differential treatment intensities across HEIs and subject groups. Our analysis demonstrates that the REE had a positive effect on student enrolment, but only in the top-performing HEIs. The effect was larger for high-quality students, namely those with better high school final marks or coming from the academic track. Further exploratory analysis suggests that there was a reversal in the effect with the second REE, with only medium- or bottom-performing HEIs gaining more enrolments as a result of improving their performance.
Citation
Biancardi, D. & Bratti, M. (2019). The effect of introducing a Research Evaluation Exercise on student enrolment: Evidence from Italy. Economics of Education Review, 69(1), 73-93. Elsevier Ltd. Retrieved March 28, 2024 from https://www.learntechlib.org/p/207474/.
This record was imported from Economics of Education Review on March 15, 2019. Economics of Education Review is a publication of Elsevier.
Full text is availabe on Science Direct: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.econedurev.2019.01.001Keywords
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