The Impact of Lecture Attendance on Academic Performance in a Large First Year Economics Course

Abstract

In this study we investigate whether class attendance is positively associated with academic performance for a large sample of first year students studying macroeconomics in a regional Australian university. Our findings, based on OLS and Logit models, confirm those of many others in that lecture attendance does contribute to academic performance. Other findings are that prior economics training in high school and a measure of ability or intelligence are both positively and significantly related to academic performance. Males do better than females on multiple choice sections but not on written answer sections of the final exam. Non-minority students do better in the multiple choice section, but not in the written answer section, than minority students. Finally, there is some evidence that longer travel times to and from campus also reduce academic performance.