Effects of Perceived Productivity on Study Effort: Evidence from a Field Experiment

Abstract

How does effort respond to the perceived relationship between effort and performance? To answer this question, I conduct a field experiment with a widely used online learning platform. I exogenously manipulate students' beliefs about the effort-performance relationship by assigning them to different information treatments, each of which provides factual information. I find that both information about an average individual and anecdotal information move students' beliefs towards the information provided. Furthermore, students change their study effort in the same direction with the shifts in their beliefs about returns to effort. This result suggests that altering students' beliefs about the effort-performance relationship influence their human capital accumulation.

Keywords: study effort, beliefs, perceived returns to effort

JEL Classification: I26, D83, J24