The e ect of financial rewards on students achievement: Evidence from a randomized experiment

This paper reports about a randomized field experiment in which first year economics and business students at the University of Amsterdam could earn financial rewards for passing the first year requirements within one year. Participants were assigned to a high, low and zero (control) reward group. The passing rate and the numbers of collected credit point are not statistically di erent across the three groups. We do find some evidence for heterogeneous treatment effects. In particular, high ability students and students from higher social backgrounds have higher passing rates and collect more credit points when assigned to (higher) reward groups. Students in the reward groups, however, do not report to have studied more hours.