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On the design of non-monetary incentives in schools

On the design of non-monetary incentives in schools
On the design of non-monetary incentives in schools
We analyze the impact of non-monetary incentives on performance in a mathematics test in secondary schools. While we apply predetermined incentives in two treatments, in a third treatment, pupils can choose one from four incentives – a medal, homework voucher, parent letter or surprise. Overall, we find no impact of non-monetary incentives on test scores. Our estimates are small and statistically not distinguishable from zero. However, due to a lack of power we cannot rule out the possibility of effect sizes that would have positive effects on test score if incentives are self-chosen and negative effects if incentives are predetermined. Nevertheless, we find that pupils who could choose their incentive significantly increased their self-reported learning effort.
223-240
Riener, Gerhard
8e8e27a6-4931-4e70-b223-688f3fd616c1
Wagner, Valentin
c650683b-2c3d-4772-95e4-b1177363a7f0
Riener, Gerhard
8e8e27a6-4931-4e70-b223-688f3fd616c1
Wagner, Valentin
c650683b-2c3d-4772-95e4-b1177363a7f0

Riener, Gerhard and Wagner, Valentin (2019) On the design of non-monetary incentives in schools. Education Economics, 27 (3), 223-240. (doi:10.1080/09645292.2019.1586835).

Record type: Article

Abstract

We analyze the impact of non-monetary incentives on performance in a mathematics test in secondary schools. While we apply predetermined incentives in two treatments, in a third treatment, pupils can choose one from four incentives – a medal, homework voucher, parent letter or surprise. Overall, we find no impact of non-monetary incentives on test scores. Our estimates are small and statistically not distinguishable from zero. However, due to a lack of power we cannot rule out the possibility of effect sizes that would have positive effects on test score if incentives are self-chosen and negative effects if incentives are predetermined. Nevertheless, we find that pupils who could choose their incentive significantly increased their self-reported learning effort.

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More information

Accepted/In Press date: 19 February 2019
Published date: 4 March 2019

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 479308
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/479308
PURE UUID: 2bf43c24-6384-4c67-a835-012fbbc52485
ORCID for Gerhard Riener: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-1056-2034

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Date deposited: 20 Jul 2023 16:54
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 04:18

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Contributors

Author: Gerhard Riener ORCID iD
Author: Valentin Wagner

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