Rise to the challenge or not give a damn: Differential performance in high vs. low stakes tests

Arbeitspapier

This paper studies how different demographic groups respond to incentives by comparing performance in the GRE examination in high and low stakes situations. The high stakes situation is the real GRE examination and the low stakes situation is a voluntary experimental section of the GRE that examinees were invited to take immediately after they finished the real GRE exam. We show that males exhibit a larger difference in performance between the high and low stakes examinations than females, and that Whites exhibit a larger difference in performance between the high and low stakes examinations relative to Asians, Blacks, and Hispanics. We find that the larger differential performance between high and low stakes tests among men and whites can be partially explained by the lower level of effort invested by these groups in the low stake test.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 5693

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination ; Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity ; Education and Inequality ; Personnel Economics: Compensation and Compensation Methods and Their Effects
• Subject: gender ; competition ; incentives ; GRE ; high stakes ; low stakes ; test score gap

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Attali, Yigal ; Neeman, Zvika ; Schlosser, Analia
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
• (where): Bonn
• (when): 2011

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/51974
• URN: urn:nbn:de:101:1-201105173299
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:43 AM CET