We model the teacher-student relationship as an agency problem, where teachers are concerned with human capital formation and students --- ability signaling. The model's distinctive feature is that with grading rules unobservable for the job market the teacher finds grades costless incentives....

Firms screen graduates using grade thresholds, which can turn into students’ targeted learning outcomes or reference points in the model of study effort choice. Variability in the usage of grade thresholds implies students’ uncertainty about the value of grades. Work experience from...