Elena Lazzaro (Bank of Italy)
Luca De Benedictis, Raffaello Bronzini and Edoardo Frattola
Online universities have expanded rapidly in Italy over the past two decades. Leveraging administrative data linked to standardized pre-university test scores, this paper examines the demographic profile and academic outcomes of online students. Compared to their peers in traditional institutions, online enrollees tend to be older, more frequently come from technical or vocational tracks, and exhibit lower high school grades and standardized test scores. Despite these initial disadvantages, they display lower dropout rates and higher on-time completion rates at the bachelors level. However, performance declines when transitioning from an online bachelors program to a traditional masters degree. Our findings also suggest that online universities primarily expand access along the extensive margin rather than substituting for traditional institutions: enrollment growth has been concentrated in provinces with historically low participation in higher education and among students with an ex ante lower likelihood of enrolling.