Exam credits and exam performance in university economics courses - evidence from a regression discontinuity experiment

摘要

We estimate effects of nonfinancial incentives, combined with the notion of 'loss aversion,' on students' exam performance in two introductory economics courses. Our experiment awarded five points to students who scored below the median score on Midterm I as an incentive to improve their performance on Midterm II - these points would be lost if they failed to improve their performance. Regression discontinuity analysis indicates that this incentive improved male students' performance by 0.38 standard deviations on Midterm II.