Advanced mathematics: An advantage for business and management administration students

Abstract

In the current context of a “mathematically intensive” job market, we aim to assess whether the educational policies that recommend Social Sciences tracks to access Business and Management Administration degrees are the most appropriate. A new case study for the European Higher Education Area is provided. We apply different econometric analyses to an educational production function to test whether there is a significant relationship between mathematical skills and academic performance in Business degrees. We analyse a set of indicators, including a complete disaggregation by subject. Our findings lead us to recommend advanced mathematics for access to these degrees, preventing students without enough maths skills from enrolling. This could improve both the transition to university and academic performance, as well as facilitating the incorporation of graduates into the current labour market.