Micro-Level Determinants of Time Allocation to University Lectures and Study 29/04/’10 * Martin Ryan, University College Dublin Liam Delaney, University College Dublin Colm Harmon, University College Dublin, IZA This paper investigates the determinants of students’ time use during higher education; in partic- ular, time-allocation to university lectures and study. The data used contains measures of individual differences that are novel for an empirical study of microeconomic behaviour. These include attitude to risk, consideration of future consequences and non-cognitive ability traits. The contribution of this work is to demarcate the individual differences, situations and choices that lead to greater amounts of lecture attendance and study. Attention is given to the importance of individual situations by accounting for financial transfers from parents, and from the state. Family background variables are also included. The role of choice is incorporated by comparing results for sub-samples of students across patterns of labour supply and main area of study. Results are also compared across sub-samples defined by gender, prior academic performance and key determinants of study-time allocation. Finally, it should be noted that models of lecture attendance and personal study are run separately for students enrolled in courses related to science, engineering, technology and maths (STEM); and non-STEM subjects. JEL: D01, J22, I21 Keywords: study, behaviour, time-allocation I. Introduction The allocation of time has important consequences for students undertaking a course of higher education. Theory suggests that students should spend an extra hour studying if the marginal benefit exceeds the marginal cost. Costs occur in the form of sacrificed lesiure or sacrificed consumption (via reduced or zero labour-supply). Benefits occur in the form of grades and future earnings. The emphasis in this paper is on estimating the determinants of student time use; in particular, time-allocation to university lectures and study. The data used contains measures of * Thanks to seminar participants from the UCD School of Economics and Geary Institute for providing comments; and to conference participants at the IEA in Bunclody (April 2008), at “What’s The Behavioural...” in Trento (June 2008), at IAREP/SABE in Rome (September 2008) and the One-Day Event in Economics and Psychology at NUI Maynooth (November 2008). Particular thanks to Kevin Denny for comments. Thanks to Richard Williams for help with a technical query. Ryan is a graduate student at the UCD School of Economics and a Ph.D. affiliate at the UCD Geary Institute; he acknowledges financial support from an IRCHSS scholarship, and a Geary Ph.D. fellowship. Email: martin.ryan@ucd.ie