DP6895 The Effects of Remedial Mathematics on the Learning of Economics: Evidence from a Natural Experiment

Author(s):	Johan N. M. Lagerlöf, Andrew J Seltzer
Publication Date:	July 2008
Keyword(s):	differences-in-differences, quantile regressions, remedial mathematics, teaching of economics
JEL(s):	A22, I20
Programme Areas:	Public Economics
Link to this Page:	cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=6895

This paper examines the effects of remedial mathematics on performance in university-level economics courses using a natural experiment. We study exam results prior and subsequent to the implementation of a remedial mathematics course that was compulsory for a sub-set of students and unavailable for the others, controlling for background variables. We find that, consistent with previous studies, the level of and performance in secondary-school mathematics have strong predictive power on students? performance at university-level economics. However, we find relatively little evidence for a positive effect of remedial mathematics on student performance.