Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/141558 
Year of Publication: 
2016
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 9799
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
We estimate the returns to college using administrative data on college enrollment matched to administrative data on weekly earnings. Utilizing the fact that colleges dismiss low-performing students based on exact GPA cutoffs, we use a regression discontinuity design to estimate the earnings impacts of college. Dismissed students are permitted to apply for readmission, but since relatively few do so, these students end up completing fewer years of school and are approximately 10 percentage points less likely to graduate college. Our estimates suggest that low-performing students (on the margin of college dismissal) derive substantial earnings benefits from college.
Subjects: 
academic probation
returns to college
regression discontinuity
JEL: 
I21
I23
I26
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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