How Does Employment Affect Academic Performance Among College Students?

Abstract

The likelihood of working while in school for college students has beenincreasing particularly as the cost of education has also been rising. This paper estimatesthe effect of student work on academic performance. The study uses a statistical procedureto account for the possibility that the number of hours worked is endogenous whenmodeling academic performance. The results indicate that student employment has anegative effect on academic performance for freshmen, but for upper classmen, thenegative effect only occurs after working longer hours. The negative effect is weakest forjuniors, followed by seniors and sophomores (J2; I2).