Essays in the economics of education
Creators: name: Williams, Travis
Publisher: name: University of Iowa
Year: 2022
Subjects: engagement
nudge
STEM major
public abstract

description: This dissertation explores how student choices are affected by institutional characteristics and instructional practices in higher education. In the first chapter, which is joint work with Darren Page, we conduct and analyze results from an experiment designed to increase student engagement in large, introductory lecture classes. In the second chapter, I use data from the U.S. Department of Education to evaluate the effects of college selectivity and student academic preparation on major choice.
description: In the first chapter we aim to identify the effects of increased, personalized instructor feedback on performance in introductory college courses. Poor performance in introductory courses and lack of individualized assistance may contribute to college non-completion. We conduct an experiment in which poorly-performing students in large lectures are randomized to receive individualized communication through email about their course performance along with a reminder of their instructors’ out-of-class availability. Half of the treated students receive an email from the professor, while the other half receive an email from their teaching assistant. We compare the efficacy of outreach from professors to outreach from teaching assistants. We
description: find that neither treatment measurably increases course performance or perception of instructor quality. Emails from professors decrease attendance at TA office hours, suggesting that students view professor and TA office hours as substitutes. Both types of emails increase the frequency at which students seek help from the email’s sender, but do not increase the frequency at which students seek help from the other, non-sending instructor, even though all emails contain office hour information for both the professor and the TA. Thus, changing the identity of the sender changes the effects of
description: the nudge, which has implications for the scale-up of nudging programs. If messages come from a source that is impersonal or unknown to the recipient, the nudges may be less effective than those in a small-scale study where sender and recipient have a closer relationship.
description: In the second chapter, I study how college selectivity and students’ academic preparation affect major choice. The existing literature is divided. I use data from the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:2002) to evaluate the findings of Dillonand Smith (2017a) and Arcidiacono, Aucejo, and Hotz (2016), two recent papers that study the impact of college quality, student academic preparation, and their interaction on the likelihood that students major in a STEM field. I closely replicate Dillon and Smith (2017a) in the new data but am unable to replicate Arcidiacono, Aucejo, and Hotz (2016). In contrast with their results, I find that the effect of college qualityon the probability of STEM graduation is decreasing in student academic preparation. Less prepared students experience large gains in the likelihood of completing a STEM major from attending high quality schools; the likelihood that a more prepared student majors in STEM is relatively unaffected by the quality of the college that the student attends.