Class Attendance and Academic Performance: A Panel Data Analysis

This study uses data from business students taking an introductory statistics course at a primarily undergraduate Canadian university to examine the impact of class attendance on examination performance. To control for unobserved individual-specific heterogeneity, the study utilises a panel data framework. The study finds that after controlling for factors related to ability and effort, class attendance has a significant positive impact on grade. The results further suggest that completion of online assignments also has a positive impact on grade, indicating that both class attendance and online assignments have independent effects on grades.