This repository contains my replication of the results from Lindo, J. M., Sanders, N. J., & Oreopoulos, P. (2010). Ability, Gender, and Performance Standards: Evidence from Academic Probation. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 2(2), 95-117.
Lindo et al. (2010) examine the effects of academic probation on student outcomes using a regression discontinuity design. The analysis is based on data from a large Canadian university and evaluates whether academic probation is successful in improving the performance of low scoring students. Consistent with a model of performance standards, the authors find that being placed on probation in the first year of university induces some students to drop out of school while it improves the grades of students who continue their studies. In a more general sense, academic probation can offer insights into how agents respond to negative incentives and the threat of punishment in a real-world context.
In this project, I replicate the results from Lindo et al. (2010) and explore the underlying causal relationships between academic probation and student outcomes. In addition to the replication, I extend the analysis by implementing various robustness checks for the findings presented in the paper.
My replication, which is conducted using Python, is presented in the Jupyter notebook replication-notebook.ipynb. The best way to view the notebook is by downloading this repository from GitHub. Alternatively, the notebook can be viewed via mybinder or nbviewer by clicking the badges above. However, these viewing options may have issues with displaying images or coloring of certain parts (missing images can be viewed in the folder files). The original paper as well as the data and code provided by the authors can be accessed here.
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Lindo, J. M., Sanders, N. J., & Oreopoulos, P. (2010). Ability, Gender, and Performance Standards: Evidence from Academic Probation. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 2(2), 95-117.
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Eisenhauer, P. (2019). Course project template, HumanCapitalAnalysis, https://github.com/HumanCapitalAnalysis/template-course-project.
