Determinants of Individual Academic Achievement – Group Selectivity Effects Have Many Dimensions

This paper measures determinants of individual academic achievements. In addition to an extensive list of individual characteristics, skills obtained during study and socio-economic background factors, many dimensions of selectivity into academic study subjects are shown to drive individual academic achievement, such as differences between average student grades during tertiary education or cognitive skills. This paper is based on a large and representative graduate survey of graduates in the academic year 2003/2004 in the German state of Bavaria. E-mail: [email protected], address: LMU, Munich School of Management, Ludwigstr. 28/RG, D-80539 Munich, Germany. I thank Robert Wagner for helpful comments and the Staatsinstitut für Schulqualität und Bildungsforschung, Munich and especially Susanne Falk for providing me with the first wave of the Bayerisches Absolventenpanel and giving me advice on its interpretation.