82 C. Lo¨fgren, H. Ohlsson Economics of Education Review 18 1999 79–88
3. Descriptive facts
Data have been collected for the 181 students who were registered in undergraduate theses courses in eco-
nomics at Uppsala and Umeå during 1993. They were observed for three and a half years, which means a total
of seven semesters. It is well known in Sweden that the- sis work often stretches out into at least a second sem-
ester although the intention in theses courses is that the- ses should be completed within the first semester. Table
1 shows that at the end of the seventh semester, counting from when thesis work was started, the completion rate
has converged to slightly less than four-fifths of the stu- dents. The completion process may vary between differ-
ent groups of students. Table 1 indicates that the time to complete is longer in Umeå than in Uppsala and longer
for women than for men in Uppsala.
The information about these students available to us is the data recorded at the study registers maintained at
the two departments. The variables extracted from these registers are the following see Table 2: characteristics
of students’ background gender and age and measures of earlier educational experiences grade point average
from secondary school and choice of the science study program in secondary school.
2
The students’ previous record of finishing courses in the intended time is rep-
resented by the time that has elapsed since they first passed an introductory course of economics. The stu-
dents’ prior knowledge of economics is represented by the share of courses in economics where the student has
received the highest grade: passed with distinction.
Students follow different study programs. This choice
Table 1 Completion rate of students
University Gender
Cumulative share Share not Number of
completing students
1 2
3 4
5 6
7 Uppsala
women 46
67 79
80 82
82 82
18 61
men 64
74 77
80 82
83 86
14 83
total 56
71 78
80 82
83 84
16 144
Umea¨ women
14 71
79 79
86 86
86 14
14 men
9 48
61 74
78 78
78 22
23 total
11 57
68 76
81 81
81 19
37 Total
women 40
68 79
80 83
83 83
17 75
men 52
68 74
78 81
82 84
16 106
total 47
68 76
79 82
82 83
17 181
2
Appendix B gives the exact definitions of the variables.
might reflect important differences in students’ aptitude for thesis work. Study programs may for instance vary
in the number of papers that the student has had to write prior to the undergraduate thesis. Not all students are
enrolled in study programs. Some students choose not to enroll in a study program, instead choosing to apply for
one course at a time.
The thesis may be coauthored. Both advantages and disadvantages can be expected as a result. Having two
or more more unusual authors is accompanied by the necessity of adjustment and cooperation in preparation,
reading, and writing which, if not handled properly, might slow the work down. However, this potential dis-
advantage might turn into an advantage if handled suc- cessfully. A likely increase in the discipline of work, as
well as other benefits of collaboration, could increase the pace of writing. Undergraduate theses are written on two
levels: the C- and the D-thesis. For the more advanced D-level one would expect the work to take longer but
this might be balanced out by the experience D-students have from their C-thesis. In the estimations there is an
indicator variable for whether the thesis is on the D-level or not.
In Uppsala students may write their thesis on a special course in applied econometrics. It could be expected that,
both as a result of the selection of students and of the knowledge gained in the course, these students are better
prepared, at least for empirically oriented theses. A vari- able has been introduced to measure whether there is a
difference in the completion process between students who started their thesis work in the spring or in the fall
semester. Such a difference could result from the possi-
83 C. Lo¨fgren, H. Ohlsson Economics of Education Review 18 1999 79–88
Table 2 Arithmetic means
Uppsala Umeå
Both Not
Pass Pass with
Total Not
Pass Pass with
Total Total
completed distinction
completed distinction
Background Women,
48 41
43 42
29 43
39 38
41 Age, years
26.5 25.6
24.7 25.5
27.9 27.0
26.4 26.8
25.8 Science program,
35 33
41 35
57 17
30 33
35 secondary school,
Grade point average, 3.7
3.7 4.1
3.8 3.5
3.7 3.7
3.7 3.8
secondary school Study time,
3.9 2.5
2.2 2.7
2.2 2.0
2.4 2.2
2.6 economics, years
High grades, 17
21 31
23 40
29 58
49 28
economics, Study programs
Public administration, 26
36 19
30 14
14 22
19 28
Business economics, 35
25 30
28 29
43 44
40 30
Social science, 9
6 14
8 14
22 16
10 International
9 6
11 8
– –
– –
6 economics,
Other programs, 9
6 14
8 7
Single subject 13
21 14
18 43
43 13
24 19
courses, Thesis
Coauthored, 17
44 60
44 29
57 41
43 D-level thesis,
35 13
14 17
29 22
19 17
Applied econometrics, 13
24 14
– –
– –
11 Spring 1993,
30 32
24 30
29 29
9 16
27 Number of students
23 84
37 144
7 7
23 37
181 Number of students,
19 72
36 127
6 4
22 32
159 grade point average
bility of using the summer vacation for thesis work which would shorten the time for spring students when
compared to the fall students. Table 2 displays means of the variables at the two
universities. The numbers are similar. According to the table it seems that higher theses grades are associated
with younger students, with higher previous grades, with coauthoring, and with C-theses. One of the variables
stands out more than others: Coauthors constitute a far smaller share of the students not completing their theses
than of the total group of students. In Uppsala only 17 of noncompleters were coauthors while 44 of students
that passed and 60 of those who passed with distinction came from this group. The pattern in Umeå is similar.
3
The students in the applied econometrics course in Uppsala also seem to come out better than other groups
of students, as far as the averages in Table 2 can lead us. Data in the table must be interpreted with great caution.
Specific cells in the table may represent a small number of students, particularly for the case of Umeå.
4. Econometric specification
