Prior mathematical and economics knowledge and student outcome in introductory economics at university : a quantile regression approach

This paper investigates the relative importance of a wide range of variables on student performance in a first year introductory economics (IE) subject. The multi-year data set used provides detailed demographic and performance characteristics of 2186 students enrolled in a major multi-campus university. We find that higher levels of mathematics and economics taken prior to university are significantly associated with improved student performance using ordinary least square and quantile regression method. Students who had studied another quantitative subject in the university prior to taking introductory economics also performed significantly better.