Gender Differences in Regrades in College

Ask and You Shall Receive? Gender Differences in Regrades in College

Cher Hsuehhsiang Li, Basit Zafar

NBER Working Paper No. 26703
Issued in January 2020
NBER Program(s):Economics of Education Program, Labor Studies Program

Using administrative data from a large 4-year public university, we show that male students are 18.6 percent more likely than female students to receive favorable grade changes initiated by instructors. These gender differences cannot be explained by observable characteristics of the students, instructors, and the classes. To understand the mechanisms underlying these gendered outcomes, we conduct surveys of students and instructors, which reveal that regrade requests are prevalent, and that male students are more likely than female students to ask for regrades on the intensive margin. …