Abstract:
This paper investigates the importance of the second moment of individual grade distribution; grade variance. Transcript data from the U.S. National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1979, along with detailed register information for students in Norway are used to investigate the association between grade variance and educational attainment. For both the United States and Norway, grade variance is negatively associated with educational attainment across the grade distribution. Estimates are robust to controlling for socioeconomic characteristics and school fixed effects and remain negative for both genders and when including measures of cognitive and non-cognitive skills. My results suggest that institutions should consider more than just grade point average in admission decisions.
Host: Kalle Moene