Does high school program choice affect academic performance? Evidence for Economics

This study evaluates the impact of the choice of the Economics elective course in secondary school on the performance in Economics at the University level. While several studies look at the impact on performance of the number of hours of mathematics in secondary school, less has been made regarding the impact of the secondary school Economics program. We match survey data from 360 students enrolled in the first year of the bachelors program in HEC-Management School of University of Liège, with administrative data and exam results.
The methodological challenge is that students who choose Economics elective course in secondary school are likely to be different, in terms of motivation, from other students. To get rid of this potential bias, we approximate motivation using self-reported reasons for the choice of the elective courses, but also participation to non-mandatory tests and preparations before the exam. We also control for several individual characteristics (socio-economic background, age, gender, secondary school fixed effect, etc.) in order to compare students with similar abilities.
Preliminary analysis shows that students who have chosen Economics elective course in the last year of secondary school do not perform better, or worse, at their University Economics exam, when controlling for the number of hours of mathematics they had in secondary school, as well as other individual characteristics. However, they are less likely to report their bachelor Economics course as being “difficult”. Overconfidence of students with higher previous economic knowledge may explain why they do not perform better than their peers.