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A Sample Survey on Inactive Students: Weighting Issues in Modelling the Inactivity Status

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Topics in Theoretical and Applied Statistics

Part of the book series: Studies in Theoretical and Applied Statistics ((STASSPSS))

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Abstract

In this paper we analyze the issue of inactive university students, that is, students with zero university credits in career for at least a calendar year. A focus on this topic is important not only for the negative effects of inactivity on students and their families but also because an increasingly amount of the Ordinary Financing Fund (FFO) is allocated to the universities taking into account the performance of the students’ career. Data were collected through a CATI questionnaire administered to a stratified simple random sample of 1945 students enrolled at the University of Pisa in the academic year 2010–2011. The probability of being in the inactive status is modelled specifying a two-level random intercepts logistic regression model, after dealing with the issue of weighing the statistical units.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The reported p-value is based on the likelihood-ratio (LR) test but it should be noted that the null hypothesis for this test is on the boundary of the parameter space because it refers to a variance component. As a consequence, the LR test does not have the usual central chi-square distribution with one degree of freedom but it is better approximated as a 50:50 mixture of central chi-squares with zero and one degree of freedom [5].

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Statistical Observatory of the University of Pisa, Lungarno Pacinotti 43, Pisa, 56126, Italy

    Lucio Masserini

  2. Department of Statistics and Applied Mathematics to Economics, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy

    Monica Pratesi

Authors
  1. Lucio Masserini
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  2. Monica Pratesi
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lucio Masserini .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. MEMOTEF, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy

    Giorgio Alleva

  2. Dept. of Statistcs & Informatics, University of Florence, Florence, Italy

    Andrea Giommi

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Masserini, L., Pratesi, M. (2016). A Sample Survey on Inactive Students: Weighting Issues in Modelling the Inactivity Status. In: Alleva, G., Giommi, A. (eds) Topics in Theoretical and Applied Statistics. Studies in Theoretical and Applied Statistics(). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27274-0_15

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