THE EFFECTIVENESS OF REMEDIAL COURSES IN ITALY: A FUZZY REGRESSION DISCONTINUITY DESIGN

We evaluate the effects on student achievement of a number of remedial courses provided by an Italian University. To identify the causal effect of remediation we use a Fuzzy Regression Discontinuity Design, relying on the fact that students whose performance at a placement test was below a certain cutoff were assigned to the treatment. We deal with partial compliance using the assignment rule as an instrumental variable for the effective attendance to remedial courses. From our analysis it emerges that students just below the cutoff, attending the remedial courses, acquire a higher number of credits compared to students just above the cutoff. We also find that remedial courses reduce the probability of dropping out from academic career. On the other hand, we do not find any statistically significant effect on the average grade obtained at passed exams.