Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/271990 
Year of Publication: 
2023
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 10346
Publisher: 
Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo), Munich
Abstract: 
We present first experimental evidence that relative performance feedback improves both the speed and quality with which challenging long-term tasks are completed. Providing university students with ongoing relative feedback on accumulated course credits accelerates graduation by 0.12 SD, and also improves grades by 0.063 SD. Treatment effects are concentrated among students with medium pre-treatment graduation probabilities: when these students are informed about an above-average performance, their outcomes improve – otherwise their outcomes deteriorate. Combined with survey evidence, this pattern of results suggests that learning about own ability is a plausible mechanism.
Subjects: 
relative performance feedback
rank
natural field experiment
higher education
perceived ability
belief updating
JEL: 
C93
D83
D91
I21
I23
I24
Document Type: 
Working Paper
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