The unintended consequences of academic leniency
Education is widely recognized as the primary driver of human capital accumulation. However, policies designed to promote educational attainment often overlook students’ endogenous responses. This paper provides empirical evidence of the causal impact of relaxed academic standards on student effort and achievement. We find that academic leniency results in mechanical GPA increases, but…
Education is often seen as the key to developing human capital. Nevertheless, policies aimed at boosting educational achievement may not account for the behavior of students themselves. This study examines the real-world impact of policies that make academic standards more lenient. The findings show that while these policies do boost average grades, they also lead to a decline in effort from students who are less academically inclined.
Specifically, such students attend class less frequently and earn poorer numerical scores. These varying effects ultimately widen the gap in participation and academic results throughout high school, ultimately leading to a greater disparity in future human capital, as quantified by ACT scores. This conclusion is drawn from a new paper by A. Brooks Bowden, Viviana Rodriguez, and Zach Weingarten, published in the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy.
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