Academic achievements: the effects of excess time to degree on GPA

This paper proposes a novel approach to investigating the determinants of academic performance: GPA and time to degree. We match administrative records with questionnaire responses for a large set of undergraduate students from one Italian public university. By exploiting reforms implemented by the University, we estimate the effect of the excess time to degree on GPA and find a strong negative relationship. Our results shed light on two crucial outcomes of academic performance, which may also determine the students’ bargaining power in the labor market.