Immigrant Examination Behavior

Abstract

In this paper, we estimate differences in examination behavior between immigrants and natives, by examining differences in the propensity to forego a passing grade on a final exam in order to retake that final exam. Retaking a final exam involves some level of uncertainty, so differences in examination behavior may be due to differences in motivation, risk-taking, and discipline. We find that immigrants are about 2 percentage points more likely to retake a passed exam than natives. This represents a large difference given a baseline retake rate of about 6.5 percentage points.

Keywords: Immigrant-Native Differences, Examination Behavior, Uncertainty, Motivation

JEL Classification: J15, I23, D81