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College Cost and Time to Complete a Degree: Evidence from Tuition Discontinuities

Pietro Garibaldi1; Francesco Giavazzi2; Andrea Ichino3,4; Enrico Rettore5

1 Collegio Carlo Alberto · 2 Bocconi University · 3 Center for Economic and Policy Research · 4 University of Bologna · 5 University of Padova and IRVAPP

The Review of Economics and Statistics 2012 open access

University tuition typically remains constant throughout the years of enrollment while delayed degree completion is increasingly a problem for academic institutions around the world. Theory suggests that if continuation tuition were raised, the probability of late graduation would be reduced. Using a regression discontinuity design on data from Bocconi University in Italy, we show that a 1,000 euro increase in continuation tuition reduces the probability of late graduation by 5.2% when the benchmark probability is 80%. This decline is not associated with an increase in the dropout rate or a fall in the quality of students performance.

DOI
10.1162/rest_a_00195
Volume
94 (3)
Pages
699-711
Language
en
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