This website uses cookies.

By clicking the "Accept" button or continuing to browse our site, you agree to first-party and session-only cookies being stored on your device to enhance site navigation and analyze site performance and traffic. For more information on our use of cookies, please see our Privacy Policy.

  1. Home
  2. Journals
  3. AEA Papers and Proceedings
  4. May 2020
  5. A Test of Enhancing Learning in Economics through Nudges

A Test of Enhancing Learning in Economics through Nudges

  • Rita Balaban
  • Patrick Conway
AEA Papers and Proceedings
vol. 110, May 2020
(pp. 289-93)
Download Full Text PDF

Abstract

We test for the importance of nudges in improving student performance in introductory economics courses at UNC-Chapel Hill. We use a randomized controlled trial to test the effectiveness of nudges in encouraging use of academic supports and (jointly) the use of these supports on academic performance. With our aggregated sample the average treatment effects take the correct sign but are uniformly statistically insignificant. This near-zero average effect masks large and significant effects of nudges among subgroups of individuals: females, first years, and individuals of color. Our results identify subgroup-activity pairings for which nudges work at the margin to encourage participation.

Citation

Balaban, Rita, and Patrick Conway. 2020. "A Test of Enhancing Learning in Economics through Nudges." AEA Papers and Proceedings, 110: 289-93. DOI: 10.1257/pandp.20201050

Additional Materials

JEL Classification

  • A22 Economic Education and Teaching of Economics: Undergraduate
  • D83 Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
  • D91 Micro-Based Behavioral Economics: Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
  • I23 Higher Education; Research Institutions
  • J15 Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination