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A for effort: Incomplete information and college students’ academic performance

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  • Wright, Nicholas A.
  • Arora, Puneet

Abstract

Students form beliefs about their expected performance based on incomplete information about the past distribution of grades. This may lead students to sub-optimally choose their level of effort and ultimately harm their actual academic performance. Using a field experiment, this paper examines the impact of randomly exposing students to accurate instructor-level information about the past distribution of grades in an introductory economics course. We find that while the intervention had a small positive impact on students’ average test scores, it improved the likelihood of passing the course by 10 percentage points. In addition, the results indicate that moderate-achievers, females, and students from higher-income households are most likely to benefit from treatment. The intervention also favored the students who had high expectations about their performance in the course and those with stronger priors about the expected grade distribution.

Suggested Citation

  • Wright, Nicholas A. & Arora, Puneet, 2022. "A for effort: Incomplete information and college students’ academic performance," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecoedu:v:88:y:2022:i:c:s0272775722000152
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econedurev.2022.102238
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Paul W. Grimes & Meghan J. Millea & Thomas W. Woodruff, 2004. "Grades—Who's to Blame? Student Evaluation of Teaching and Locus of Control," The Journal of Economic Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(2), pages 129-147, April.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Incomplete information; Overconfidence; Grade expectations; Academic performance;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • A2 - General Economics and Teaching - - Economic Education and Teaching of Economics
    • D8 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty
    • D9 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics
    • I2 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education

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