Rank Incentives and Social Learning: Evidence From a Randomized Controlled Trial

Abstract

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte.In a 1-year randomized controlled trial involving thousands of university students, we provide real-time private feedback on relative performance in a semester-long online assignment.Within this setup, our experimental design cleanly identifies the behavioral response to rank incentives (i.e., the incentives stemming from an inherent preference for high rank).We find that rank incentives not only boost performance in the related assignment, but also increase the average grade across all course exams taken over the semester by 0.21 standard deviations. These beneficial effects remain sizeable across all quantiles and extend beyond the time of the intervention. The mechanism behind these findings involves social learning: rank incentives make students engage more in peer interactions, which lead them to perform significantly better across the board. Finally, we explore the virtues of real-time feedback by analyzing a number of alternative variations in the way it is provided. JEL Classification:J24, J18

Performance Feedback and Peer Effects

“…This result is stronger for the best students who are motivated by rank, but lower score students work also harder to improve. Using a 1-year RCT in which students receive real time, continuous, and private relative feedback in a semester-long assignment, Dobrescu et al (2019) identify precisely strong and lasting rank incentives. The advantage of using online tasks with no bearing on students' grades is that performance has no signaling value, by contrast with previous studies.…”

Motivating Low-Achievers—Relative Performance Feedback in Primary Schools

“…Hence, we are able to provide a comprehensive picture of the effects of relative performance 5 The introduction of e-learning systems into schools that apply game-based feedback systems relying on relative performance feedback (point systems, rankings, high-score lists, etc.) accelerates the prevalence of relative performance feedback in educational settings even more (gamification, e.g., Sailer, Hense, Mayr, & Mandl, 2017;Deterding, Dixon, Khaled, & Nacke, 2011), and it has been noted that it is in particular certain features of digital learning environments such as instantaneous or visual feedback provision that are conducive to the effectiveness of these tools for improving learning outcomes (see, e.g., der Kleij, Feskens, & Eggen, 2015;Dobrescu, Faravelli, Megalokonomou, & Motta, 2019). 6 Most existing studies in educational settings use a one-shot relative performance feedback (e.g., Megalokonomou & Goulas, 2018); studies that analyze repetitive feedback are usually laboratory experiments (e.g., Gill et al, 2018).…”