Replication data for: Measuring Success in Education: The Role of Effort on the Test Itself

Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s) Uri Gneezy; John A. List; Jeffrey A. Livingston; Xiangdong Qin; Sally Sadoff; Yang Xu

Version: View help for Version V1

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data			05/30/2025 11:40:AM
LICENSE.txt	text/plain	14.6 KB	05/30/2025 07:40:AM

Project Citation:

Gneezy, Uri, List, John A., Livingston, Jeffrey A., Qin, Xiangdong, Sadoff, Sally, and Xu, Yang. Replication data for: Measuring Success in Education: The Role of Effort on the Test Itself. Nashville, TN: American Economic Association [publisher], 2019. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2025-05-30. https://doi.org/10.3886/E231439V1

Project Description

Summary: US students often rank poorly on standardized tests that estimate and compare educational achievements. We investigate whether this might reflect not only differences in ability but also differences in effort on the test. We experimentally offer students incentives to put forth effort in two US high schools and four Shanghai high schools. US students improve performance substantially in response to incentives, while Shanghai students—who are top performers on assessments—do not. These results raise the possibility that ranking countries based on low-stakes assessments may not reflect only differences in ability, but also motivation to perform well on the test.

Scope of Project

JEL Classification:
      C93 Field Experiments
      I21 Analysis of Education
      I26 Returns to Education
      O15 Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
      P36 Socialist Institutions and Their Transitions: Consumer Economics; Health; Education and Training: Welfare, Income, Wealth, and Poverty

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Published Versions

V1 [2025-05-30]

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