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"Making It Count": Evidence from a Field Study on Assessment Rules, Study Incentives and Student Performance

Author

Listed:
  • Chevalier, Arnaud

    (Royal Holloway, University of London)

  • Dolton, Peter

    (University of Sussex)

  • Lührmann, Melanie

    (Royal Holloway, University of London)

Abstract

This paper examines a quasi-experiment in which we encourage student effort by setting various weekly incentives to engage in online tests. Our identification strategy exploits i) weekly variation in incentives to determine their impact on student effort, and ii) controlled cross-group variation in assessment weighting. Assessment weighting strongly encourages quiz participation, without displacing effort over the year. We estimate the return to a quiz at around 0.15 of a standard deviation in exam grade. Effort in our study increases most for students at and below median ability, resulting in a reduction of the grade gap by 8%.

Suggested Citation

  • Chevalier, Arnaud & Dolton, Peter & Lührmann, Melanie, 2014. ""Making It Count": Evidence from a Field Study on Assessment Rules, Study Incentives and Student Performance," IZA Discussion Papers 8582, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8582
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Czibor, Eszter & Onderstal, Sander & Sloof, Randolph & van Praag, C. Mirjam, 2020. "Does relative grading help male students? Evidence from a field experiment in the classroom," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    effort; feedback; incentive; higher education;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I23 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Higher Education; Research Institutions
    • D20 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - General

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