%0 Report
        %A Bizopoulou, Aspasia
%A Megalokonomou, Rigissa
%A Simion, Stefania
        %T Do Second Chances Pay Off? Evidence from a Natural Experiment with Low-Achieving Students
        %D 2022
        %8 2022 Mar
        %I Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        %C Bonn
        %7 IZA Discussion Paper
        %N 15139
        %U https://www.iza.org/publications/dp15139
        %X In several countries, students who fail end-of-high-school high-stakes exams are faced with the choice of retaking them or forgoing postsecondary education. We explore exogenous variation generated by a 2006 policy that imposed a performance threshold for admission into postsecondary education in Greece to estimate the effect of retaking exams on a range of outcomes. Using a fuzzy regression discontinuity design and novel administrative data, we find that low-achieving students who retake national exams improve their performance by half a standard deviation, but do not receive offers from higher quality postsecondary placements. The driving mechanism for these results stems from increased competition.
        %K exogenous policy
%K low-achieving students
%K postsecondary education admission
%K fuzzy regression discontinuity design