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Behavioral Economics Commons

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Full-Text Articles in Behavioral Economics

Goal Effectiveness In Achieving Educational Outcomes: Experimental Evidence From 9th Graders In Medellin, Colombia, Daniel Salicath, Alessandra Cassar May 2017

Goal Effectiveness In Achieving Educational Outcomes: Experimental Evidence From 9th Graders In Medellin, Colombia, Daniel Salicath, Alessandra Cassar

Master's Theses

Does goal setting among low-income ninth graders leads to higher average goal achievements of educational outcomes? This question is explored by a field experiment motivated by the acknowledged California-based Family Independence Initiative (FII), to analyze the effectiveness of individual goal setting, incentives and self-help groups on the achievement of educational goals. By randomizing treatments and control with the cooperation of the Secretary of Education in Medellin, different classrooms were assigned to five different experimental groups that met systematically for five months. The results show that goal setting is a cost-effective method to help low-income students achieve educational outcomes. Setting a …


Unemployment, Does It Really Hurt?, Claudia Vargas May 2017

Unemployment, Does It Really Hurt?, Claudia Vargas

Theses and Dissertations

This paper analyzes the consequences of changes in the unemployment rate in Colombia on the level of education attained for adolescents. Increases in the unemployment rate are associated with an increase in the average number of years of education. No significant effect was found for men of the same age.


Comparing And Validating Measures Of Character Skills: Findings From A Nationally Representative Sample Apr 2017

Comparing And Validating Measures Of Character Skills: Findings From A Nationally Representative Sample

Gema Zamarro

Though researchers now are aware of the potential importance of character skills, such as conscientiousness, grit, self-control, and a growth mindset, researchers struggle to find reliable measures of these skills. In this paper, we use data collected from the Understanding America Study, a nationally representative internet panel to study the validity of innovative measures of character skills based on measures of survey effort. We believe surveys themselves can be seen as a behavioral tasks and that respondents provide meaningful information about their character skills by way of the effort they put forward on surveys. In particular, we compare measures of …


Financial Management Issues Of College-Aged Students: Influences And Consequences, Katharine N. Widener Apr 2017

Financial Management Issues Of College-Aged Students: Influences And Consequences, Katharine N. Widener

Selected Honors Theses

College students have acquired a reputation of irresponsibility and impulsivity, which has contributed to the perception that they are poor managers of money. This researcher sought to establish a clearer picture of the full story behind how college students handle their finances through a comprehensive literature review. Several searches were conducted on the topics of college students, finances, money management, debt levels, and other related terms. Scholarly articles were analyzed for common themes and research patterns, and the various strings of research identified were categorized into three main headings: Financial situation, financial influences, and financial consequences. The three major headings …