Could do Better: The Effectiveness of Incentives and Competition in Schools

Gianni De Fraja and Pedro Landeras ()

CEIS Research Paper from Tor Vergata University, CEIS

Abstract: This paper studies the effects of incentive mechanisms and of the competitive environment on the interaction between schools and students, in a set-up where the students' educational attainment depends on their peer group, on their effort, and on the quality of the school's teaching. We show that increasing the power of the incentive scheme and the effectiveness of competition may have the counterintuitive effect of lowering the students' effort, with ambiguous effects on their attainment. In a simple dynamic set-up, where the reputation of the schools affects recruitment, we show that increased competition leads to segregation of pupils by ability.

Keywords: Students effort; Schools quality; Peer-group effect; Incentives (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H42 I20 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 26
Date: 2004-02-18
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu, nep-hrm, nep-pbe and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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https://ceistorvergata.it/RePEc/rpaper/No-48-DeFraja,Landeras.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Could do better: The effectiveness of incentives and competition in schools (2006)
Working Paper: Could Do Better: The Effectiveness of Incentives and Competition in Schools
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:rtv:ceisrp:48

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