The Importance of Relative Performance Feedback Information: Evidence from a Natural Experiment using High School Students

Ghazala Azmat () and Nagore Iriberri ()
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Ghazala Azmat: http://www.econ.upf.edu/en/people/onefaculty.php?id=p3431
Nagore Iriberri: http://www.econ.upf.edu/en/people/onefaculty.php?id=p3432

Economics Working Papers from Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra

Abstract: We study the effect of providing relative performance feedback information on performance under piece-rate incentives. A natural experiment that took place in a high school offers an unusual opportunity to test this effect in a real-effort setting. For one year only, students received information that allowed them to know whether they were performing above (below) the class average as well as the distance from this average. We exploit a rich panel data set and find that the provision of this information led to an increase of 5% in students’ grades. Moreover, the effect was significant for the whole distribution. However, once the information was removed the effect disappeared. To rule out the concern that the effect may be artificially driven by teachers within the school, we verify our results using national level exams (externally graded) for the same students, and the effect remains.

Keywords: School performance; relative performance; piece-rate; feedback; natural experiment; social comparison; self-perception; competitive preferences (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I21 M52 C30 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-edu, nep-lab and nep-ure
Date: 2009-01, Revised 2009-07
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Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:upf:upfgen:1148

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