Does Relative Grading Help Male Students? Evidence from a Field Experiment in the Classroom

Eszter Czibor, Sander Onderstal, Randolph Sloof and Mirjam Praag

Framed Field Experiments from The Field Experiments Website

Abstract: We conduct a framed field experiment in a Dutch university to compare student effort provision and exam performance under the two most prevalent evaluation practices: absolute (criterion-referenced) and relative (norm-referenced) grading. Based on the empirical stylized fact of gender differences in competitiveness we hypothesize that the rank-order tournament created by relative grading will increase male, but not female, performance. Contrary to our expectations, we find no impact of competitive grading on preparation behavior or exam scores among either gender. Our result may be attributed to the low value students in our sample attach to academic excellence.

Date: 2016
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-edu, nep-eur and nep-exp
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Does relative grading help male students? Evidence from a field experiment in the classroom (2020)
Working Paper: Does Relative Grading Help Male Students? Evidence from a Field Experiment in the Classroom (2014)
Working Paper: Does Relative Grading help Male Students? Evidence from a Field Experiment in the Classroom (2014)
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