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Teaching credentials and academic performance: a panel data study in a Latin American School of Economics

Abstract:

The present research studied the relationship between the credentials of teachers and the academic performance of students who, in the 2014–2015 period, joined the bachelor’s degree program in Economics at the Universidad Católica Andrés Bello, Caracas, Venezuela. The hypothesis of a direct relationship between teaching quality and student performance was evaluated using a panel data methodology, in which the students were considered as “individuals,” and the semesters of the degree course were the time period under study. For the fixed and random effects estimations without instrumental variables, the following were found to be significant: the teacher’s marital status, place of study, pedagogical training, student evaluation, and the teacher’s professional commitments outside the academic sphere. The results do not allow us to accept the null hypothesis since academic teaching credentials do not promote significant increases in academic performance.