Incentives for Student Effort

Last registered on August 22, 2023

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Incentives for Student Effort
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0000643
Initial registration date
February 27, 2015

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
February 27, 2015, 8:18 PM EST

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

Last updated
August 22, 2023, 8:15 PM EDT

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

Locations

Region

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
UC San Diego

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status
Completed
Start date
2014-08-15
End date
2017-08-01
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
Despite the importance of student effort in determining education outcomes, relatively few programs have been designed to directly motivate students. Yet most school-age children face a difficult intertemporal decision problem since the costs of studying are immediate while the payoff is distant and uncertain. Although recent experiments have found that student incentives can improve learning outcomes under some circumstances, the impact of such rewards has likely been limited by a focus rewarding relatively distant outcomes (end-of-semester exams). This field experiment with primary school children in India leverages a technology-based learning platform to directly reward student effort (i.e. practicing) through both tangible and non-tangible incentives.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Hirshleifer, Sarojini. 2023. "Incentives for Student Effort." AEA RCT Registry. August 22. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.643-1.1
Former Citation
Hirshleifer, Sarojini. 2023. "Incentives for Student Effort." AEA RCT Registry. August 22. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/643/history/190824
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention Start Date
2014-11-17
Intervention End Date
2015-06-30

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
See analysis plan.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
See analysis plan.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
STATA
Randomization Unit
Classroom
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
45
Sample size: planned number of observations
approximately 1500
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
Rotation Design. See analysis plan.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
See analysis plan.
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
UCSD Human Research Protections Program
IRB Approval Date
2014-07-09
IRB Approval Number
none
Analysis Plan

Analysis Plan Documents

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials