Enhancing the Efficacy of Teacher Incentives through Framing: A Field Experiment
- (pp. 269-99)
Abstract
In a field experiment, we provide financial incentives to teachers framed either as gains, received at the end of the year, or as losses, in which teachers receive up-front bonuses that must be paid back if their students do not improve sufficiently. Pooling two waves of the experiment, loss-framed incentives improve math achievement by an estimated 0.124 standard deviations (σ), with large effects in the first wave and no effects in the second wave. Effects for gain-framed incentives are smaller and not statistically significant, approximately 0.051σ. We find suggestive evidence that the effects on teacher value added persist posttreatment.Citation
Fryer, Jr., Roland G., Steven D. Levitt, John List, and Sally Sadoff. 2022. "Enhancing the Efficacy of Teacher Incentives through Framing: A Field Experiment." American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 14 (4): 269-99. DOI: 10.1257/pol.20190287Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- C93 Field Experiments
- I21 Analysis of Education
- I28 Education: Government Policy
- J32 Nonwage Labor Costs and Benefits; Retirement Plans; Private Pensions
- J45 Public Sector Labor Markets
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