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Cramming and Credibility: Strategic Test Announcements in the Classroom

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  • Zijun Meng

Abstract

This paper studies a cheap-talk model of strategic test announcements. A teacher observes the day of the test of the next week decided by the nature and makes an announcement to his students who choose effort levels of studying. The competing forces are the teacher's value on consistent study habits and the students' grade orientation. We characterize the pure strategy Nash equilibrium under the linear-quadratic student utility. We also study what happens when the teacher can commit to an information policy.

Suggested Citation

  • Zijun Meng, 2026. "Cramming and Credibility: Strategic Test Announcements in the Classroom," Papers 2606.22434, arXiv.org, revised Jun 2026.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2606.22434
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Goltsman, Maria & Pavlov, Gregory, 2011. "How to talk to multiple audiences," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 72(1), pages 100-122, May.
    2. Farrell, Joseph & Gibbons, Robert, 1989. "Cheap Talk with Two Audiences," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 79(5), pages 1214-1223, December.
    3. Golosov, Mikhail & Skreta, Vasiliki & Tsyvinski, Aleh & Wilson, Andrea, 2014. "Dynamic strategic information transmission," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 304-341.
    4. repec:fth:stanho:e-89-7 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Crawford, Vincent P & Sobel, Joel, 1982. "Strategic Information Transmission," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(6), pages 1431-1451, November.
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