Entrepreneurship Education and Academic Performance

The significant increase of entrepreneurship education (EE) is a trend in Europe. Entrepreneurship education is supposed to promote general and specific entrepreneurial abilities and improve academic performance. This paper evaluates whether EE influences academic performance, measured by Grade Point Average. The main indicator used for EE is the Company Program (CP), a program taught in upper-secondary school in 40 European countries. The data derive from surveys conducted in Norway in 2008 (1,400 pupils) and 2011 (1,100 post-graduates). Results from econometric analyses show that there is no difference in the GPA between participants in CP and other forms of EE and non-participants. This indicates that EE is neither good, nor bad as a teaching method for improvement of academic performance.