%0 Journal Article
%@ 0734-306X
%A De Groote, Olivier
%C Chicago, Ill
%D 2024
%F publications:48088
%I University of Chicago Press
%J Journal of Labor Economics
%R 10.1086/726702
%T Dynamic effort choice in high school: costs and benefits of an academic track
%U https://publications.ut-capitole.fr/id/eprint/48088/
%X I investigate high school tracking policies using a dynamic discrete choice  model of study programs and unobserved effort. I estimate the model using  data from Flanders (Belgium) and perform an ex-ante evaluation of a policy  that encourages underperforming students to switch to less academically ori-  ented programs. This reduces grade retention by a third and dropout by 11%.  Although it decreases college enrollment, the decrease in college graduation is  small and insignificant. I also show that modeling effort is important, otherwise  we would predict smaller decreases in grade retention and dropout and larger  decreases in college enrollment and graduation.