When Opportunity Knocks, Who Answers?: New Evidence on College Achievement Awards

Abstract

We evaluate the effects of academic achievement awards for first and second-year college students studying at a Canadian commuter college. The award scheme offered linear cash incentives for course grades above 70. Awards were paid every term. Program participants also had access to peer advising by upperclassmen. Program engagement appears to have been high but overall treatment effects were small. The intervention increased the number of courses graded above 70 and points earned above 70 for second-year students, but generated no significant effect on overall GPA. Results are somewhat stronger for a subsample that correctly reproduced the program rules.

Using Goals to Motivate College Students: Theory and Evidence from Field Experiments

“…In other experiments on college students, academic support services have been combined with financial incentives. Results on the performance effects of these interventions are again mixed: Angrist et al (2009) and Barrow et al (2014) report strong effects; Angrist et al (2014) find weak effects; and Miller et al (2011) find no significant effects. Financial incentives are also controversial due to concerns that they might crowd out intrinsic incentives to study (see, e.g., Cameron andPierce, 1994, andGneezy et al, 2011).…”

“…We study goals that are set by students themselves, as opposed to goals set by another party (such as a counselor or professor), because self-set goals can 1 Studies using randomized experiments and natural experiments to evaluate the effects of financial incentives on the performance of college students have been inconclusive: Henry et al (2004), Cha and Patel (2010), ScottClayton (2011), De Paola et al (2012 and Castleman (2014) report positive effects; while Cornwell et al (2005), Angrist et al (2009), Leuven et al (2010), Patel and Rudd (2012) and Cohodes and Goodman (2014) do not find significant effects. Although there is little consensus on the reason behind the failure of many incentive programs, Dynarski (2008) notes that the incentives may be irrelevant for many students, and Angrist et al (2014) report that one-third of the students in their study failed to fully understand a relatively simple grade-based incentive scheme. In other experiments on college students, academic support services have been combined with financial incentives.…”

The value of earning for learning: Performance bonuses in immigrant language training

“…In contrast, there is also evidence from randomized experiments from the US, Canada and elsewhere that suggest that financial incentives play a limited role or are not effective (Angrist, Oreopoulos and Williams 2010, Fryer 2010, Bettinger 2008, and Sharma 2010. Probably the largest experiment up to date was carried out on more than 200 elementary schools in the three different metropolitan areas in the US (see Fryer, 2010).…”

“…While a number of randomized trials suggest that financial incentives do improve student achievement (e.g., Angrist, Lang and Oreopoulos 2009, Angrist et al 2002, Kremer, Miguel and Thornton 2009, Angrist and Lavy 2009, Dearden et al 2009, Dee 2009and Pallais 2009 there is also evidence of more limited or no effects (e.g., Angrist, Oreopoulos and Williams 2010, Fryer 2010, Bettinger 2008and Sharma 2010.…”

Gender Wage Gap and Its Effect on Test Scores of Immigrant Students

“…Many researchers have attempted to empirically examine the economic incentives associated with educational achievement (Angrist and Lavy 2009;Kremer et al 2009;Leuven et al 2010;Fryer 2011;Bettinger 2012;Angrist et al 2014). Increasing numbers of researchers have focused on the gender gap in mathematics and its relationship with empirical economics (e.g., Ellison and Swanson 2010;Guiso et al 2008;Fryer and Levitt 2010;Niederle and Versterlund 2010).…”