Causes and Consequences of Skipping Class in College

In this paper we estimate the effect of class attendance on exam performance by implementing a policy in three large economics classes that required students scoring below the median on the midterm exam to attend class. This policy generated a large discontinuity in the rate of post-midterm attendance. We estimate that near the threshold, the post-midterm attendance rate was 36 percentage points higher for those students facing compulsory attendance. The discontinuous attendance policy is also associated with a significant difference in performance on the final exam. We estimate that a 10 percentage point increase in a student’s overall attendance rate results in a 0.17 standard deviation increase in the final exam score without adversely affecting performance on other classes taken concurrently. Given the large estimated effect of attendance on exam performance, we then consider what motivates student absenteeism by implementing two campus wide surveys of lecture attendance. First, we observe characteristics and attendance rates of 180 large lecture courses and find little relationship between attendance and factors within the instructor’s control. Next, we conducted a web survey of undergraduates. The three main reasons undergraduates report missing class is that they needed to sleep, they felt the class was useless or they needed to prepare for another class. 1 Email: cdobkin@ucsc.edu, rgil@ucsc.edu, marion@ucsc.edu. We appreciate the helpful comments of Dan Friedman, Muriel Niederle, Al Roth, and Donald Wittman. Lauren Malone, Lindsey Freitas, David Friedman, Ryan Lipert, and Katy Wallace provided excellent research assistance.

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