D. Contini | University of torino (original) (raw)

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Papers by D. Contini

This paper analyses the causal effect of grade retention on students’ high school track decisions... more This paper analyses the causal effect of grade retention on students’ high school track decisions in Italy. Using longitudinal administrative data, we propose a matching strategy to assess the impact of retention in institutional settings with substantial leeway in the promotion/retention decision. If decision makers differ in their propensity to retain students (strictness), it is reasonable to expect some of the students kept back to be fully on a par with others who are promoted. Assuming that strictness is a school-related factor, we argue that it is not theoretically possible to find a good match within the same school. We therefore match retained students to students with a similar array of ability measures, who were promoted in schools displaying a lower degree of strictness. We find that grade retention dramatically increases school dropout rates and that the negative impact is stronger for students with poorly educated or immigrant parents.

Giornate Di Studio Sulla Popolazione 2015, Nov 14, 2014

… R. Revelli Working Papers Series, 2005

Negative duration dependence in the exit rate from social assistance is an important issue addres... more Negative duration dependence in the exit rate from social assistance is an important issue addressed in the dynamic welfare participation literature. If heterogeneity is properly modelled, the decline of the exit rate is ascribed to a progressive reduction of the ...

Quality & Quantity, 2011

Aim of this work is to evaluate the overall effect of social origins on secondary school track en... more Aim of this work is to evaluate the overall effect of social origins on secondary school track enrolment in Italy, Germany and Netherlands, allowing for consistent cross country comparisons. PISA 2003 is employed. Track choices are assumed to depend on student's ability and social origins; since proficiency before tracking is not observed, ability is not kept under control. Nonetheless, the unconditional social background effect is the quantity of main substantive interest because it represents the total effect of social origins on school choices.

Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2012

Stigma has been modeled in the literature as a cost of welfare participation, providing a disince... more Stigma has been modeled in the literature as a cost of welfare participation, providing a disincentive to welfare entry; hence, traditional models predict that stigma leads to higher search effort and higher employment. We develop a more comprehensive model that accounts for the fact that welfare stigma may elicit psychological effects and foster negative attitudes towards welfare recipients, affecting their employment prospects. We find two contrasting effects. The first reinforces the standard prediction: rational individuals foreseeing the reduction in employability defer welfare entry (deterrence effect); the second goes in the opposite direction: once assisted, individuals experience less welfareto-employment transitions, both because of reduced search effectiveness and of reduced search effort (entrapment effect). When stigma is not too high, the latter effect prevails: more stigma yields to less employment and more welfare participation. The result is stronger if individuals are not able to foresee their loss of employability.

Drafts by D. Contini

This paper analyses the causal effect of grade retention on students' high school track decisions... more This paper analyses the causal effect of grade retention on students' high school track decisions in Italy. Using longitudinal administrative data, we propose a matching strategy to assess the impact of retention in institutional settings with substantial leeway in the promotion/retention decision. If decision makers differ in their propensity to retain students (strictness), it is reasonable to expect some of the students kept back to be fully on a par with others who are promoted. Assuming that strictness is a school-related factor, we argue that it is not theoretically possible to find a good match within the same school. We therefore match retained students to students with a similar array of ability measures, who were promoted in schools displaying a lower degree of strictness. We find that grade retention dramatically increases school dropout rates and that the negative impact is stronger for students with poorly educated or immigrant parents.