Doctoral Dissertation Research in Economics: Performance based commitment devices and academic success

University Of California-Davis, Davis CA

Investigators

Abstract

This dissertation centers on a novel mechanism that acts as both a commitment device and an incentive instrument for college students to improve their academic performance. The proposal is at the intersection of research in behavioral economics and education where there is a growing interest in the insights that one field can bring into the other. The proposal uses mixed methods - field and lab experiments - to explore a creative mechanism to improve academic performance. The evaluation is performed through randomized experiments designed to accomplish a set of goals, namely: (1) draw stronger inferences on the effectiveness of the proposed mechanism; (2) predict selection into a successful path of studies as a function of preferences and beliefs; (3) identify the importance of commitment and loss aversion for participants. The proposal will contribute to the study of a number of direct questions addressing the impact of incentives on commitment, and the link between preferences and self-selection into such a program. The stagnation of US college completion rates over the past 20 years has been particular surprising given increases in overall college attendance and returns to college education. A natural question to ask is what factors determine the likelihood of a student's success in college, conditional on entering. Little research has been done to help identify programs that could help battle problems of present bias. This dissertation not only introduces a mechanisms that boosts student performance by helping them commit to academic goals, but will also help to shape the knowledge of how different behaviorally-inspired incentive schemes can be utilized to boost student performance in general.