This article evaluates the impact of loss aversion as a behavioral motivator on students’ classroom performance. Conducting an experiment with University of Kentucky undergraduate students, the authors framed student grades as a loss and gain. In treatment sections, the students began with full marks and lost points as the semester progressed, whereas in control sections, under a traditional grading scheme, students accumulated points throughout the semester. We find that treated individuals, on average, do not have a statistically different final grade than individuals in the control class. However, we uncover a heterogeneous gender effect. On average, a male in the treatment class scores between 3.17 and 4.05 percentage points higher on the final grade than a male in the control class, ceteris paribus. Conversely, a female in the treatment class scores between 3.61 and 4.36 percentage points lower on the final grade than a comparable female in the control class.

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Apostolova‐Mihaylova, Maria, William Cooper, Gail Hoyt, and Emily C. Marshall. Heterogeneous Gender Effects Under Loss Aversion in the Economics Classroom: A Field Experiment. Southern Economic Journal 81, no. 4 (2015): 980-994. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/soej.12068

Emily Marshall is a professor of Economics at Dickinson College.

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