Promoting scientific faculties: Does it work? Evidence from Italy

Abstract

The object of this article is to assess the causal impact of promotions policies on students' choice of the field of study. We match the records of the students enrolled in two large universities with the records of the participating schools. Within the participating schools, some students took part in the program, while others did not. We adopted an "exposure" approach in which we define as treated all students of a cohort that were eligible for these activities. We find, on average, a positive and significant effect of the policy on targeted and non-targeted scientific bachelor's degrees and positive cross-treatment effects across subjects. However, if the policy has a considerable influence on male students' choices, it does not appear to have any effect on female students' choices. These findings suggest that the policy helped students in correcting their labor market expectations for graduating in science.

Mathematics camps: A gift for gifted students?

“…Their household fixed effects results imply that students who take an advanced academic mathematics curriculum in high school (algebra II or precalculus, trigonometry, or calculus) are about 17% more likely to go to college compared to those students whose highest mathematics class was algebra I or geometry. Moreover, mathematics courses increase students' propensity to sign up for a mathematics degree ( Maestri, 2013 ). Our results show that students attending the camp are more likely to declare that they will enroll in university but we find no effect on intentions to study a STEM degree.…”

Body Weight and Gender: Academic Choice and Performance

“…curricular activities in the secondary schools, however, this policy did not have an effect on females (Maestri, 2013).…”

“…When we control for previous scholastic performance (the type of diploma and the score reported at high school graduation), the relationship is no longer significant. To this respect, one may argue that the decreasing participation rates in scientific studies registered in most OECD countries in the last decades could be due, on one hand, to a high risk of drop out in the scientific courses and, on the other hand, to reduced academic selection correlated to an increasing democratisation and expansion of the university system in most developed western countries (Convert, 2005;Maestri, 2013).…”

“…According to the literature on this topic, scientific studies require more effort and ability because higher risks of drop out are observed (Buonanno & Pozzoli, 2009;Maestri, 2013). At the same time, scientific disciplines imply higher returns.…”

“…Moreover, in the last twenty years, most OECD countries have registered a decreasing trend in enrolment in scientific programmes. Investments in scientific studies are important not only for economic growth but also, from a microeconomic perspective, to increase individual probabilities of employment and early earnings (Machin & Puhani, 2003;Buonanno & Pozzoli, 2009;Maestri, 2013).…”