Academic Performance of Students by Gender, Educational Credit and Residency: Evidence from Economics Students at a Public University in Ira

This article examines the influence of three demographic factors, namely gender, educational credit, and residency status, on the academic achievement of economics students at the Department of Economics, University of Tehran, Iran. The data analyzed comprise academic performance and demographic information of 220 undergraduate students and 194 graduate students from the 2015 and 2019. We employ pooled ordinary least square estimation to investigate students' performance using three outcome measures, including course grades, semester GPAs, and the ratio of failed to passed units per semester. The results indicate that female undergraduate students outperform their male counterparts in all three outcome measures. Moreover, undergraduate students who reside with their parents in Tehran perform better than those living in dormitories. Concerning educational credit, students in ‘region two’ demonstrate significantly better performance than students in ‘regions one and three’ and ‘Isargaran’. In the master's program, we observe no significant difference between male and female students in terms of grades and GPAs. Furthermore, graduate students who live with their parents have higher GPAs than those living in dormitories, although there is no significant difference in grades. Additionally, Isargaran Credit students perform more poorly than Free Credit students, whereas Talented Credit students exhibit no significant difference from Free Credit students in either of the two measures.