At many universities, undergraduate introductory economics courses are taught in large lecture halls. Casual empiricism suggests that rates of student absenteeism are significantly greater in the large lecture format compared to the smaller classroom format. There is also the compounding factor that numerous empirical studies have identified a statistically significant negative relationship between absenteeism and student performance. Using panel data, it is estimated that the average student with less than perfect attendance is better off attending the lecture, but studying from instructorprovided lecture notes can significantly reduce the negative effect of absence on exam performance. Additional estimates of the differential effects of intellectual styles show the notes were the least beneficial for the auditory intellectual style.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.