Question

Suppose staff at college are discussing whether attendance (e.g. students going to classes and/or lectures) should be compulsory or optional.

How could (a) neoclassical economics and (b) behavioural economics help them address this question?

Answer 1

Before answering lets analyse a statement given in the Journal of Economic Education, Stanca (2006) :-

“A compulsory attendance policy would distort the opportunity cost of absenteeism and impose a welfare loss on students. In addition, beside the fact that a captive audience is not a good learning environment, compulsory attendance would take away an important signal for lecturers on the quality of their teaching.

(a) The three cental assumptions to neoclassical economics state that

1. People have rational preferences between outcomes that can be identified and associated with values.
2. Individuals maximize utility and firms maximize profits.
3. People act independently on the basis of full and relevant information.

By this assumption we can say that staff at college should make attendance optional. This is because it is assumed that individuals are rational and always intend to maximise their utility. Therefore students will attend class irrespective of regulations in order to gain more knowledge and make most of their tuition fee. The cost-benefit analysis for majority of students for maximisimg utility would also suggest that going to class is a better alternative than skipping class. However, neoclasscial economics has an objective approacha nd the solutions provided may not suffice always in real life scenario.

However if oopportunity cost of attending class is very high than students would prefer to be absent.

(b) Approaching the problem from behavioural economics can also provide multiple answers.

A minimum threshold on attendance might be a good nudge to make sure that students attend atleast a required numbe rof classes. This may increase inteest among students who may have chosen to opt-out without knowledge about the classes. In such a case a minimum threshold as compulsory attendance is effective.

However, being an exceptional lecturer may not be enough, as students’ perceptions can be difficult to change. As such, it’s recommended that students be required to meet lecturers one-on-one, or at least in small groups, early in the semester. This should be a default, with students needing to actively opt-out if they cannot attend. This meeting offers an opportunity for students to form a more accurate mental model of the lecturer, who could potentially evolve into a role model.

Hence there isn't a one-size fits all answer to the question as such but different perspectives provide different solutions.