Proxying the socio-economic background through real estate values. An application on performances of university students

This study shows how the socio-economic background of students in tertiary education can influence their performances and, in particular, the obtained graduation mark. Relying on administrative records on graduated students of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (UNIMORE) and aggregated statistics from the Immobiliare.it website, we explore the role of socio-economic background on students’ performances through two different proxies. One refers to the group of the Italian indicator of the household equivalised economic situation (or ISEE) which the student belongs, while the other consists of the average real estate price featuring the postcode where the student resides. Econometric results show a positive influence of both proxies of the socio-economic background on the graduation mark. Specifically, we observe that belonging to highest ISEE groups has on the graduation mark a similar effect with respect to the average real estate price of the student’s postcode of residence. This evidence confirms that the latter may be an effective alternative dimension to proxy the individuals’ socio-economic background when income/wealth variables are not available, interval-censored, or also present relevant issues of reliability.