Beliefs and Education
Paper Session
Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2021 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM (EST)
- Chair: Orazio Attanasio, Yale University
Effects of Perceived Productivity on Study Effort: Evidence from a Field Experiment
Abstract
How does effort respond to the perceived relationship between effort and performance? To answer this question, I conduct a field experiment with a widely used online learning platform. I exogenously manipulate students' beliefs about the effort-performance relationship by assigning them to different information treatments, each of which provides factual information. I find that both information about an average individual and anecdotal information move students' beliefs towards the information provided. Furthermore, students change their study effort in the same direction with the shifts in their beliefs. This result suggests that altering students' beliefs about the effort-performance relationship influence their human capital accumulation.How Do Expectations about Government Benefits Affect Human Capital Investment?
Abstract
Supplemental Security Income (SSI), administered by the Social Security Administration (SSA), pays $10 billion annually to the families of 1.3 million low-income, disabled children. SSI youth have poor life outcomes, including high dropout rates and arrest rates. When SSI children turn 18, they must re-qualify for the program as adults. Since the definition of disability is more stringent for adults than children, 70% of SSI children with certain mental and behavioral conditions are removed at age 18. However, qualitative evidence indicates that most households vastly underestimate the probability of removal. The hypothesis underlying this project is that a lack of information about the likelihood of removal contributes to the poor adult outcomes of SSI children. Families may believe that their children's benefits will continue in adulthood and underinvest in education. This project conducts an RCT that provides the families of SSI children with information on the likelihood of removal from SSI at age 18. We will investigate the effect of the information on short-term investments in human capital and long-term child outcomes -- including education, employment, and crime -- through a combination of survey and linked administrative data. In addition to investigating a promising policy, this project will speak to the broader question of how expectations about the availability of future government benefits affect current human capital investments, which is relevant to the design of all tax-and-transfer programs.Beliefs, Preferences, and Student Effort
Abstract
Academic achievement gaps across race, gender, and socio-economic status are strongly correlated with corresponding differences in student studying behavior. We examine the underlying determinants of this studying effort by eliciting the relevant preferences and beliefs for several thousand U.S. high school students in a novel survey. Equipped with these individual-level utility curves and studying-to-grade production functions, we flexibly solve for each pupil’s expected study behavior. The predictions based on students’ beliefs and preferences are strongly linked to their reported study habits. Counterfactual simulations show that differential preferences for receiving higher grades are the primary driver of the achievement gaps rather than variation in willingness to study or beliefs about the efficacy of studying. We also find that pay-for-grades incentives have muted predicted effects, as have been found experimentally, because students have low beliefs about the efficacy of studying in producing better grades.Discussant(s)
Michael Thaler
,
Princeton University
Arnaud Maurel
,
Duke University
Heather Sarsons
,
University of Chicago
Joseph Altonji
,
Yale University
JEL Classifications
- I2 - Education and Research Institutions
- D8 - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty