Does negative marking lead to gendered exam taking behavior: experimental evidence from India

Last registered on March 20, 2024
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Does negative marking lead to gendered exam taking behavior: experimental evidence from India
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0012042
Initial registration date
September 08, 2023

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
September 15, 2023, 8:51 AM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Last updated
March 20, 2024, 12:47 PM EDT

Last updated is the most recent time when changes to the trial's registration were published.

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Primary Investigator

Name
Swati Sharma
Affiliation
Indian Institute of Technology Delhi
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Nandana Sengupta
PI Affiliation
Indian Institute of Technology Delhi
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PI Name
Sumitava Mukherjee
PI Affiliation
Indian Institute of Technology Delhi
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Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2023-09-23
End date
2024-05-05
Keywords
Behavior, Education, Gender, Lab
Additional Keywords
Negative marking
JEL code(s)
D90
Secondary IDs
NA
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
Negative marking in high stake competitive examinations is often used as a tool to identify true ability or academic rigor of young aspirants across the globe. Literature from global North/developed countries shows that MCQ-negative marking-based screening process places women at a disadvantageous position because they skip more questions/guess lesser questions either because of differences in the degree of risk or loss aversion or confidence, controlling for ability/subject knowledge. Evidence from global South/developing countries is almost absent, moreover providing mixed results. In our lab experiment set up, we randomize marking scheme with half of subjects falling into no penalty for wrong answers marking scheme (control group) and others in marking scheme having 50% penalty for wrong answers (treatment group). Our sample consists of students pursuing graduation from one of the Institutes of Eminence from India as these institutes have a long history of skewed gender ratio in application and take up of technical STEM courses.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Sharma, Swati, Sumitava Mukherjee and Nandana Sengupta. 2024. "Does negative marking lead to gendered exam taking behavior: experimental evidence from India." AEA RCT Registry. March 20. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.12042-2.0
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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
This is a lab experiment where students would be invited to participate in an online quiz (effort based task). Half of the participants would be randomized in the control group (no penalty for wrong answers) and other half in the treatment group (minus half points from possible score of correct answer per incorrect question). Their payoff would be determined by their performance in the quiz.
Intervention Start Date
2023-09-23
Intervention End Date
2024-05-05

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
1. Total score, 2. Total payoff, 3. Total number of questions attempted, 4. Total number of questions with correct answers, 5. Total number of questions skipped, 6. Total number of questions with incorrect answers, 6. At question level – whether a question was answered correctly/skipped/incorrectly answered
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
It is a simple experimental design. Half of the participants will be randomly assigned into control group (no penalty for wrong answers) and other half in the treatment group (minus 50% of what could have been scored with correct answer per wrong answer). Subjects' pay off depends on the number of correct answers -penalty*number of wrong answers + fixed honorarium for participation.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Randomization done in office by computer. First sample will be stratified into male and female and 50% of females and 50% of males will be allocated to the treatment (other 50% to the control), thus achieving a total of 50% of sample in the treatment group.
Randomization Unit
Individual
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
NA
Sample size: planned number of observations
150 - 300 [per institute] students pursuing technical graduation course from 3 STEM institutes in India
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
65 -150 in No negative marking scheme (Control) and 65-150 in Negative marking scheme (Treatment) [per institute]
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Institute Ethics Committee of Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, (IEC-IITD)
IRB Approval Date
2023-03-23
IRB Approval Number
2021/P092
Analysis Plan