Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/162414 
Year of Publication: 
2016
Series/Report no.: 
Working Paper No. 205
Version Description: 
Revised version, February 2016
Publisher: 
University of Zurich, Department of Economics, Zurich
Abstract: 
We conducted an experiment with middle and high school students to test the external validity of a common laboratory measure of cheating. Subjects performed several coin tosses and earned money depending on the outcomes they reported. Because the coin tosses were not monitored, subjects faced a financial incentive to misreport their outcomes without having to worry about getting caught. We linked the responses from the lab experiment with three measures of school misconduct (i.e., disruptiveness in class, failure to complete homework, and absenteeism). The findings show that cheating in the lab significantly predicts misbehavior in school, suggesting that the experimental measure of cheating generalizes qualitatively to naturally occurring environments.
Subjects: 
Cheating
Honesty
Experiment
External Validity
School Misbehavior
JEL: 
C93
K42
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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