Helping Students to Succeed – The Long-Term Effects of Soft Commitments and Reminders

  • 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.

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Metadaten
Author:Raphael Brade, Oliver Himmler, Robert Jäckle, Philipp Weinschenk
URL / DOI:https://www.cesifo.org/en/publications/2024/working-paper/helping-students-succeed-long-term-effects-soft-commitments-and
Document Type:Working Paper
Language:English
Date of first Publication:2024/03/08
Release Date:2024/11/15
Tag:commitment device; higher education; randomized field experiment; reminder
Andere Schriftenreihe:CESifo Working Paper No. 11001
institutes:Fakultät Betriebswirtschaft
Research Themes:Soziale & ökonomische Transformation
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