Economic Incentives: Do They Work in Education? Insights and Findings from Behavioral Research

Building on the success of a previous joint conference whose proceedings are just published by MIT Press, the scientific organizers, Paul E. Peterson (Harvard) and Ludger Woessmann (Munich), hope to again bring scholarly perspectives together from both...

Building on the success of a previous joint conference whose proceedings are just published by MIT Press, the scientific organizers, Paul E. Peterson (Harvard) and Ludger Woessmann (Munich), hope to again bring scholarly perspectives together from both sides of the Atlantic. Jean-Jacques Rousseau once claimed that the best education was one that the child discerned for himself. The tutor was to “do nothing and let nothing be done” so that the child would be free to learn whatever he needed to know without external pressure. When it comes to learning, incentives – whether cash or compli¬ments – had perverse consequences. Was Rousseau correct? Do incentives operate differently in education than in other sectors of society? What kinds of incentives prompt learning? Which ones deter it? Do students respond to economic rewards? Do teachers respond to material rewards for meritorious accomplishments? Or do they regard them as demeaning? Are extrinsic incentives preferable to intrinsic ones, monetary incentives to non-monetary ones? If schools face competition for students, do they become more efficient? Answers to many education policy issues – merit pay, graduation requirements, social promotion policies, school choice options, school accountability provisions, and many others – depend on how incentives work in education.

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