TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Bizopoulou, Aspasia
AU  - Megalokonomou, Rigissa
AU  - Simion, Stefania
        TI  - Do Second Chances Pay Off? Evidence from a Natural Experiment with Low-Achieving Students
        PY  - 2022/Mar/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 15139
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/publications/dp15139
        AB  - 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.
        KW  - exogenous policy
KW  - low-achieving students
KW  - postsecondary education admission
KW  - fuzzy regression discontinuity design
        ER  -