Tomorrow Will be Better?

Last registered on January 20, 2025
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Tomorrow Will be Better?
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0014369
Initial registration date
September 19, 2024

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 26, 2024, 12:19 PM EDT

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

Last updated
January 20, 2025, 9:26 AM EST

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

Locations

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Primary Investigator

Name
Andrea Burro
Affiliation
University of St. Gallen
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2024-09-24
End date
2026-11-30
Keywords
Behavior, Education
Additional Keywords
self-esteem, procrastination, deadlines, learning app, college students
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
Procrastination is a common issue among students. My research explores procrastination as a self-defensive mechanism by integrating psychological insights with economic theory in a field experiment with college students. I test whether a low-cost intervention on self-esteem can reduce procrastination, and its impact on academic performance.

Specifically, my project is a field experiment with first year students at a public university in Switzerland. Procrastination will be measured using a learning platform, where professors upload questions for student engagement and assessment. Students will be randomly assigned to three groups, each receiving different interventions. The first group will set deadlines. The second group will receive a self-esteem booster with positive messages emphasizing progress in the platform. The third group serves as a control and will use the standard version of the platform. I will evaluate the impact of the interventions on procrastination. Additionally, I will use machine learning techniques to estimate treatment effect heterogeneity. Finally, I will estimate the effect of the interventions on academic performance.

I run a pilot study in Fall 2024 and plan to implement the main experiment in Fall 2025.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Burro, Andrea. 2025. "Tomorrow Will be Better?." AEA RCT Registry. January 20. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.14369-3.0
Sponsors & Partners

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention Start Date
2024-11-10
Intervention End Date
2026-02-15

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
The outcomes will include: (1) data collected from a learning platform on study effort; (2) administrative outcomes on students' performance, grades, points in the exams.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Self-esteem, self-confidence, time management
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)
Self-esteem measured by Rosenberg's Self Esteem Scale (Rosenberg 1965)
Self-confidence measured by questions on the expected academic performance and relative performance compared to peers
Time management measured by a short version of the Time Management Behaviors Scale (Peeters and Rutte 2005)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Students will be randomly assigned to one of three treatment arms. Specifically, one-third of the participants will receive the self-esteem boost, one-third will be given the option to set deadlines, and one-third will use the standard version of the learning platform.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Randomization done in office by a computer
Randomization Unit
Students
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
1500 students
Sample size: planned number of observations
1500 students
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
500 students self-esteem booster
500 students deadlines
500 students control
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
HSG Ethics Committee
IRB Approval Date
2024-05-31
IRB Approval Number
HSG-EC-20240508
Analysis Plan

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