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The Simple Economics of Thresholds: Grades as Incentives

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Author Info
Darren Grant () (Department of Economics and International Business, Sam Houston State University)
William B. Green () (Department of Economics and International Business, Sam Houston State University)

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Abstract

This paper examines how grade incentives affect student learning across a variety of courses at two universities, using for identification the discrete rewards offered by the standard A-F letter grade system. We develop five predictions about effort provision in the presence of the thresholds that separate these discrete rewards, only one of which has been previously tested in the economics literature generally. Surprisingly, all are rejected in our data. Either these grade incentives do not influence student effort appreciably on the margin, or the additional effort is ineffective.

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Paper provided by Sam Houston State University, Department of Economics and International Business in its series Working Papers with number 0901.

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Handle: RePEc:shs:wpaper:0901

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Joseph G. Altonji & Prashant Bharadwaj & Fabian Lange, 2008. "Changes in the Characteristics of American Youth: Implications for Adult Outcomes," NBER Working Papers 13883, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Reback, Randall, 2008. "Teaching to the rating: School accountability and the distribution of student achievement," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(5-6), pages 1394-1415, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  3. Gerald S. Oettinger, 2002. "The Effect Of Nonlinear Incentives On Performance: Evidence From "Econ 101"," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 84(3), pages 509-517, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Pascal Courty & Gerald Marschke, 2004. "An Empirical Investigation of Gaming Responses to Explicit Performance Incentives," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 22(1), pages 23-56, January. [Downloadable!]
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  5. Richard Borghesi, 2008. "Widespread Corruption in Sports Gambling: Fact Or Fiction," Southern Economic Journal, Southern Economic Association, vol. 74(4), pages 1063-1069, April.
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This page was last updated on 2009-11-4.

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