Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/141612 
Year of Publication: 
2016
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 9853
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
This paper studies the effect of providing feedback to college students on their position in the grade distribution by using a randomized control experiment. This information was updated every six months during a three-year period. In the absence of treatment, students' underestimate their position in the grade distribution. The treatment significantly improves the students' self-assessment. We find that treated students experience a significant decrease in their educational performance, as measured by their accumulated GPA and number of exams passed, and a significant improvement in their self-reported satisfaction, as measured by survey responses obtained after information is provided but before students take their exams. Those effects, however, are short lived, as students catch up in subsequent periods. Moreover, the negative effect on performance is driven by those students who underestimate their position in the absence of feedback. Those students who overestimate initially their position, if anything, respond positively.
Subjects: 
relative performance feedback
ranking
randomized field experiment
school performance
JEL: 
J71
J44
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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