scholarly journals The Behavioralist Goes to School: Leveraging Behavioral Economics to Improve Educational Performance

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 183-219 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven D. Levitt ◽  
John A. List ◽  
Susanne Neckermann ◽  
Sally Sadoff
Keyword(s):  
Behavioral Economics ◽  
Test Scores ◽  
Financial Incentives ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Educational Performance ◽  
Older Students ◽  
Substantial Impact ◽  
Testing Environment ◽  
Power Of Incentives ◽  
Level Of Effort

We explore the power of behavioral economics to influence the level of effort exerted by students in a low stakes testing environment. We find a substantial impact on test scores from incentives when the rewards are delivered immediately. There is suggestive evidence that rewards framed as losses outperform those framed as gains. Nonfinancial incentives can be considerably more cost-effective than financial incentives for younger students, but are less effective with older students. All motivating power of incentives vanishes when rewards are handed out with a delay. Our results suggest that the current set of incentives may lead to underinvestment. (JEL D03, H75, I21, I28)

The Psychiatric-Mental Health Nursing Workforce: Large Numbers, Little Data

2003 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 111-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy Hanrahan ◽  
Gail W. Stuart ◽  
Pat Brown ◽  
Mary Johnson ◽  
Claire Burke Draucker ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Financial Incentives ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Nursing Workforce ◽  
Health Care Market ◽  
Mental Health Nursing ◽  
Mental Health Nurses ◽  
Provision Of Services ◽  
Health Nursing ◽  
Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing

Managing the supply of psychiatric-mental health nursing labor, determining the financial incentives associated with the provision of services by these providers, and ensuring optimal patient and cost outcomes are critical elements of cost control and patient safety in the current health care market. Knowledge of the psychiatric-mental health nursing workforce is needed to plan and evaluate cost-effective programs to accomplish the aforementioned elements. However, the psychiatric-mental health nursing workforce data are woefully inadequate. This paper will review the extent to which national data sources contain workforce information on psychiatric-mental health nurses.

scholarly journals What if we combine Quit and win and individual approach to help smokers quit at the community level?

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (Supplement_4) ◽  
Author(s):  
J Kovacevic ◽  
D Zombori
Keyword(s):  
Sex Education ◽  
Financial Incentives ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Smoking Status ◽  
Economic Status ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Social Characteristics ◽  
Individual Approach ◽  
Effective Interventions

Abstract Issue Tobacco eventually kills up to a half of its users. Helping smokers who wish to quit is one of the six cost effective interventions listed by World Bank to decrease smoking harm. Tobacco Control Scale in 2016, shows diversity in approaches and coverage to help smokers quit across Europe. Comprehensive interventions are most effective. Combining contest, financial incentives, individual approach and triggers (start of Lent or other) could be implemented in other settings. Description of the problem Contest to motivate smokers for a quit attempt and individual help provided, has been conducted yearly since 2015 in a local community in Pozega-Slavonia County in Croatia. Data on all participants from 2015 through 2018 contests were collected by questionnaires and long term smoking status (6 months) evaluated by phone interviewing. Statistical analysis was conducted in SPSS. The objective was to determine how effective in helping smokers quit is a novel combination of evidence-based approaches “Quit and win” and individual support in local setting and to establish certain smokers characteristics as possible predictors of outcome. Results Data for 153 participants were collected. There were more (54%) male participants. Participants mean age was 35.8 years (range 18-67). Short term (30 day) abstinence rate was 73.9% (113/153) and out of those 34.1% (31/91) abstained long term (6 months). Long term follow-up was 80.5% (91/113). Overall, long term quit rate was 23.7% (31/131). There were no statistically significant differences in short and long term quit rates depending on age, sex, education, employment or socio-economic status, pack-year measure or personal success estimates. Lessons Comprehensive contest approach was found to be effective in helping smokers quit. Interest for implementation was shown by several counties and cities in Croatia. Effectiveness regardless of personal and social characteristics of contestants shows potential in different settings. Key messages Comprehensive interventions that include contest, financial incentives, individual approach and triggers in smoking cessation helped one in four involved smokers to quit. This approach has potential for implementation in diverse local communities as no difference in quit rates in different sex, age or socioeconomic groups were detected.

scholarly journals Incentives Work: Getting Teachers to Come to School

2012 ◽  
Vol 102 (4) ◽  
pp. 1241-1278 ◽  
Author(s):  
Esther Duflo ◽  
Rema Hanna ◽  
Stephen P Ryan
Keyword(s):  
Test Scores ◽  
Financial Incentives ◽  
Structural Model ◽  
Nonlinear Function ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Teacher Absenteeism ◽  
Structural Dynamic ◽  
Percentage Points ◽  
Supply Model ◽  
To Come

We use a randomized experiment and a structural model to test whether monitoring and financial incentives can reduce teacher absence and increase learning in India. In treatment schools, teachers' attendance was monitored daily using cameras, and their salaries were made a nonlinear function of attendance. Teacher absenteeism in the treatment group fell by 21 percentage points relative to the control group, and the children's test scores increased by 0.17 standard deviations. We estimate a structural dynamic labor supply model and find that teachers respond strongly to financial incentives. Our model is used to compute cost-minimizing compensation policies. (JEL I21, J31, J45, O15)

scholarly journals The Promise and Pitfalls of Using Imprecise School Accountability Measures

2002 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 91-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas J Kane ◽  
Douglas O Staiger
Keyword(s):  
Student Performance ◽  
Test Scores ◽  
Grade Level ◽  
Financial Incentives ◽  
Small Schools ◽  
Market Value ◽  
School Accountability ◽  
School Level ◽  
Accountability Systems ◽  
Accountability Measures

In recent years, most states have constructed elaborate accountability systems using school-level test scores. However, because the median elementary school contains only 69 children per grade level, such measures are quite imprecise. We evaluate the implications for school accountability systems. For instance, rewards or sanctions for schools with scores at either extreme primarily affect small schools and provide weak incentives to large ones. Nevertheless, we conclude that accountability systems may be worthwhile. Even in states with aggressive financial incentives, the marginal reward to schools for raising student performance is a small fraction of the potential labor market value for students.

scholarly journals How to Attract Physicians to Underserved Areas? Policy Recommendations from a Structural Model

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francisco J M Costa ◽  
Letícia Nunes ◽  
Fábio Miessi Sanches
Keyword(s):  
Financial Incentives ◽  
Structural Model ◽  
Choice Model ◽  
Supply And Demand ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Medical Schools ◽  
Random Coefficients ◽  
Demand Model ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
Set Up

This paper exploits location choices of all generalist physicians graduated in Brazil between 2001 and 2013 to study policies aiming at increasing the supply of physicians in underserved areas. We set up and estimate a supply and demand model for physicians. We estimate physicians' locational preferences using a random coefficients discrete choice model. The demand has private establishments competing for physicians with private and public facilities around the country. Policy counterfactuals indicate that quotas in medical schools for students born in underserved areas and the opening of vacancies in medical schools in deprived areas are more cost-effective than financial incentives.

scholarly journals Use of Student-generated Multiple Choice Questions to Enhance Team-based Learning of Anatomy at the University of Rwanda

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
ISAIE SIBOMANA ◽  
Irenee David Karenzi ◽  
Irenee Niyongombwa ◽  
Jean Claude Byiringiro ◽  
Julien Gashegu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Student Satisfaction ◽  
Test Scores ◽  
Multiple Choice ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Human Anatomy ◽  
Multiple Choice Questions ◽  
Team Based Learning ◽  
Post Test ◽  
The University ◽  
Anatomy Teaching

Abstract Introduction: Teaching of human anatomy has undergone significant changes in last 3 decades. At the University of Rwanda, anatomy is being taught using team-based learning (TBL). While student generated multiple choice questions (MCQs) stimulate deeper thinking of a given topic, their impact on anatomy learning is not known. This study aimed to improve anatomy teaching and student satisfaction by combining both models. Methods: It was a comparative interventional study where two similar chapters of anatomy were selected and one taught using team based learning while the other one, in addition to TBL, student were encouraged to set MCQs while studying. Pre- and post-test scores were analysed using SPSS 23 and student t-test was used to compare the mean score obtained. Results: 31 medical students were recruited. Pre-test mean scores in both chapters were 25.10 and 25.19 over 50 for chapter 1 and chapter 2 respectively. Although the students’ post-test scores improved after teaching for each chapter, it was much more for chapter 2 than chapter one with mean score of 39.97 and 32.45 over 50 respectively (P<0.05). Despite such improvement, setting MCQs was not easy in almost a half of students. Conclusion: This study has found that student generated MCQs can be used as a simple and cost effective tool to enhance TBL learning of anatomy. Keywords: Anatomy, teaching, MCQs, TBL, University of Rwanda

Strategy for Integrated Use of the Industrial Waste Heat

2006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helen Skop ◽  
Yaroslav Chudnovsky
Keyword(s):  
Industrial Waste ◽  
Heat Recovery ◽  
Waste Heat Recovery ◽  
Waste Heat ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Industrial Sector ◽  
Chemical Waste ◽  
Substantial Impact ◽  
Industrial Waste Heat

The domestic industrial sector uses over 32 quads of energy that represents one-third of the total energy consumed annually in United States of America. Energy consumption details can be found at www.eia.doe.gov/aer/. Obviously, that the efficient use of available energy has a substantial impact on the competitiveness of domestic manufacturers as well as on the environment. Efficient conversion of raw materials into usable products and usable work/energy strictly depends on the commercially available technologies and equipment. Energy efficiency significantly varies across multiple industries and different applications but one of the major energy losses is thermal energy loss, so-called waste heat. Sources of the waste heat comprise of variety of gaseous exhausts, waste process liquids, cooling media, chemical waste and environmental losses. Over 30 years the engineering community has been trying to develop cost-effective approaches for waste heat recovery and utilization. However, so far there is no universal and cost-effective solution or approach for the industrial waste heat recovery and utilization. In this paper authors discuss an integrated strategy of the industrial waste heat use through the consideration of the closest surrounding of the waste heat source and other types of waste (chemical, mechanical, acoustical, etc.) along with most promising heat exchanger design concepts to be appropriate for integrated waste heat recovery and utilization.

Behavioral Analysis in the Study of Politics: The Conflict Laboratory

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandro Del Ponte ◽  
Reuben Kline ◽  
John Ryan
Keyword(s):  
Behavioral Economics ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Financial Incentives ◽  
The United States ◽  
Scarce Resources ◽  
Research Areas ◽  
Interdisciplinary Field ◽  
Explicit Consideration ◽  
Institutional Contexts ◽  
Behavioral Games

Behavioral economics is an interdisciplinary field of inquiry that incorporates insights from psychology to enrich standard economic models which assume perfectly rational individuals. Empirical research in behavioral economics typically employs incentivized experiments that use economic games with real money on the line. In these experiments, subjects are awarded financial payoffs based on the decisions they make (either individually or as part of a group) in an institutional context designed by the researcher. Behavioral economics is well suited for political science because behavioral economics is interdisciplinary by nature and political science is not bound by any particular research paradigm. At the same time, the method is still novel to many political scientists despite many years of its use to study political topics in a variety of research areas. What unites the application of the method to these areas is the explicit consideration of conflict. For instance, scholars have uncovered social conflict between groups (e.g., voter polarization in the United States) using behavioral games as measures, or they have designed experiments around elections to test theories of candidate and voter behavior. Because of the clear financial incentives, economic experiments are especially useful for studying people’s actual preferences in areas such as redistribution as opposed to their stated preferences. Finally, the method can be used to design institutions that will help overcome conflict over scarce resources. In sum, the strengths of behavioral economics include: (a) the ability to vary institutional contexts; (b) clear incentives that ensure valid measures of preferences; (c) direct measures of behaviors instead of stated intentions which could be confounded by outside pressures such as social desirability.

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