TY - RPRT A1 - Behlen, Lars A1 - Brade, Raphael A1 - Himmler, Oliver A1 - Jäckle, Robert T1 - Information Framing and Student Decisions: Evidence from an Opportunity Cost Intervention T2 - CESifo Working Papers N2 - Opportunity costs are central to economic decision-making but often neglected. In a pre-registered experiment with 2,222 German university freshmen, one treatment provides salary information; another additionally frames it as the opportunity cost of delayed graduation. Only the opportunity cost framing causes students to update salary expectations. We find no effect on academic progress but a 2.8 percentage points increase in first-semester dropout (p = 0.080), concentrated among high-ropout-probability students (5.9 pp, p = 0.025). For these marginal students, dropping out instead of progressing faster is the actionable margin. By semester three, dropout rates converge, suggesting acceleration of eventual exits rather than additional dropouts. KW - Natural Field Experiment KW - Opportunity Cost Neglect KW - Earnings Expectations KW - Academic Achievement Y1 - 2026 UR - https://www.ifo.de/DocDL/cesifo1_wp12487.pdf SN - 2364-1428 IS - 12487 PB - Ifo Institute ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Brade, Raphael A1 - Himmler, Oliver A1 - Jäckle, Robert T1 - No Student Left Behind? Relative Feedback and University Completion JF - Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization N2 - We present first evidence that relative feedback can improve both the speed and quality of university graduation. Providing students with ongoing relative feedback on accumulated course credits – a measure of progress toward degree completion – increases the likelihood of graduating within one year of the officially scheduled study duration by 3.7 percentage points (an 8 % increase), thus accelerating graduation by 0.15 semesters (0.12 SD). Importantly, this does not lead to a decline in performance: grades improve by 0.063 SD. There are, however, distributional implications that policymakers need to consider: outcomes of students with medium pre-treatment graduation probabilities improve when the feedback informs them of an above-average performance – otherwise, their outcomes deteriorate. Combined with survey evidence, the pattern of results suggests that learning about own ability is a plausible mechanism. KW - Relative Feedback KW - Field Experiment KW - Higher Education Y1 - 2026 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2025.107383 SN - 0167-2681 IS - 241 ER - TY - RPRT A1 - Bolsinger, Harald J. A1 - Himmler, Oliver A1 - Jäckle, Robert T1 - Nicht-bindende Studier- und Lernvereinbarungen als Gegenmaßnahme zu Prokrastinationstendenzen im Studium BT - Synergien und Pilotierung im Rahmen eines webbasierten Self-Assessments N2 - Studierende wünschen sich Informationen zu den Anforderungen und dem Ablauf ihres Studiums. Die Hochschulen wünschen sich Studierende, die motiviert und interessiert das von ihnen gewählte Fach studieren. Gesamtgesellschaftlich sind eine geringe Abbruchquote und ein zügiges Studium erstrebenswert. Um diesen Anforderungen gerecht zu werden, wurde an der FHWS Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften Würzburg-Schweinfurt im Rahmen des Projekts BEST-FIT TP 2.1 eine Selbst-einschätzungshilfe (Self-Assessment) für Studieninteressierte entwickelt. Die Pilotversion des Studieneingangstests wurde an der Fakultät Wirtschaftswissenschaften für das Fach Betriebswirtschafts-lehre aufgesetzt und evaluiert. Bei der Entwicklung der Selbst-einschätzungshilfe entstand zudem die Idee einer Ergänzung, die darin besteht, den Studierenden im Rahmen ihres Studiums eine nicht-bindende Zielvereinbarung mit ihrer Fakultät anzubieten. Diese freiwillig geschlossene Studier- und Lernvereinbarung soll es Studierenden ermöglichen, eine sanktionslose Verpflichtung einzugehen, ihre Prüfungsleistungen zeitlich gemäß dem von der Fakultät empfohlenen Studienplan abzulegen. Die Pilotversion der freiwilligen Studier- und Lernvereinbarung wurde an der FHWS quasi „Huckepack“ im Rahmen des Self-Assessment im Studiengang Betriebswirtschaftslehre implementiert. Dabei ergaben sich durch die Vorarbeiten aus dem Self-Assessment eine Vielzahl von Synergien. Y1 - 2018 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:92-opus4-3147 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Behlen, Lars A1 - Himmler, Oliver A1 - Jäckle, Robert T1 - Defaults and effortful tasks JF - Experimental Economics N2 - Nothing is known about the effectiveness of defaults when moving the target outcomes requires substantial effort. We conduct two field experiments to investigate how defaults fare in such situations: we change the university exam sign-up procedure in two study programs to “opt-out” (a) for a single exam, and (b) for many exams. Both interventions increase task uptake (exam sign-up). Concerning the outcomes which require effort, we find no effects for many exams. For a single exam, the opt-out increases task completion (exam participation) in the study program where the default arguably entails stronger endorsement. Within this program, the effects on successful task completion (exam passing) are heterogeneous: treated students who in the past were willing to communicate with the university (responsive individuals) invest more effort into exam preparation and are more likely to pass the exam than their control counterparts.For non-responsive individuals, we find increased sign-ups but no effects on the target outcomes. Defaults can thus be effective and may be an attractive policy option even when the target outcome requires substantial effort provision. It is, however crucial that the interventions target the appropriate individuals. KW - Default KW - Randomized Field Experiment KW - Higher Education Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s10683-023-09808-8 SN - 1386-4157 VL - 26 IS - 5 SP - 1022 EP - 1059 PB - Springer Science and Business Media LLC ER - TY - RPRT A1 - Brade, Raphael A1 - Himmler, Oliver A1 - Jäckle, Robert A1 - Weinschenk, Philipp T1 - Helping Students to Succeed – The Long-Term Effects of Soft Commitments and Reminders N2 - To study whether a soft commitment device can help students succeed, we conduct a randomized field experiment and follow a cohort of tertiary students over six years. Students can commit to following their recommended study program structure, and they receive reminders each semester. This easily implementable, low-cost intervention is highly effective: it increases the five-year graduation rate (+15 percentage points) and reduces time to graduation (-0.42 semesters), driven by reduced dropout and an increase in credits obtained per semester. The effects are stronger for suspected procrastinators. A treatment only reminding students to follow the program structure has limited effects. KW - commitment device KW - reminder KW - higher education KW - randomized field experiment Y1 - 2024 UR - https://www.cesifo.org/en/publications/2024/working-paper/helping-students-succeed-long-term-effects-soft-commitments-and ER - TY - RPRT A1 - Brade, Raphael A1 - Himmler, Oliver A1 - Jäckle, Robert T1 - Relative Performance Feedback and Long-Term Tasks – Experimental Evidence from Higher Education N2 - We present first experimental evidence that relative performance feedback improves both the speed and quality with which challenging long-term tasks are completed. Providing university students with ongoing relative feedback on accumulated course credits accelerates graduation by 0.12 SD, and also improves grades by 0.063 SD. Treatment effects are concentrated among students with medium pre-treatment graduation probabilities: when these students are informed about an above-average performance, their outcomes improve – otherwise their outcomes deteriorate. Combined with survey evidence, this pattern of results suggests that learning about own ability is a plausible mechanism. KW - relative performance feedback KW - rank KW - natural field experiment KW - higher education Y1 - 2023 UR - https://www.cesifo.org/en/publications/2023/working-paper/relative-performance-feedback-and-long-term-tasks-experimental ER -