The effects of attendance on academic
performance: panel data evidence for
Introductory Microeconomics
Luca Stanca*
Economics Department
University of Milan Bicocca
July 2004
Abstract
This paper presents new evidence on the effects of attendance on
academic performance. We exploit a large panel data set for Intro-
ductory Microeconomics students to explicitly take into account the
effect of unobservable factors correlated with attendance, such as abil-
ity, effort and motivation. We find that neither proxy variables nor
instrumental variables provide a viable solution to the omitted vari-
able bias. Panel estimators indicate that attendance has a positive
and significant impact on performance. Lecture and classes have a
similar effect on performance individually, although their impact can-
not be identified separately. Overall, the results indicate that, after
controlling for unobservable student characteristics, teaching has an
important independent effect on learning.
JEL Classification: A22, I21.
* University of Milan Bicocca. Piazza dell’Ateneo Nuovo 1, 20126 Milan, Italy. Tele-
phone: #39 2 6448 6655. E-mail: [email protected]