Factors Associated With Economics Course Performance at a Large Associate Degree-Granting Institution

Abstract

Economics courses are often offered at community colleges and other institutions that primarily confer associate degrees. Despite this, little research has been conducted on performance in economics courses focusing on students attending these institutions. I use multinomial logistic models to determine which factors are related to performance in both introductory macroeconomics and introductory microeconomics at a large institution that primarily confers associate degrees and finds several factors associated with performance in these courses. Among the findings are that citizenship status, foreign-born status, and gender are associated with academic performance in economics courses as noncitizens, foreign-born, and male students outperform their citizen, U.S.-born, and female counterparts in certain circumstances. Additional results show that in-person classes are associated with higher pass rates and lower withdrawal rates.