Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/185064 
Year of Publication: 
2018
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 11604
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
We study the effects of grade retention on secondary school performance by considering a change in Colombia's educative legislation. In 2010, the rule that forced schools to retain up to a 5% of students was abolished. Exploiting variation in schools' retention rates in a difference-in-differences framework, we find that retained (marginally non-retained) students improve (decline) their performance on language but not on math test scores. We suggest the school's position in the retention distribution, and the proportion of inexperienced teachers in the classroom, can be the mechanisms by which the marginally decreasing returns of grade retention are determined.
Subjects: 
retention
Colombia
difference-in-differences
JEL: 
I20
I24
J24
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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