Can defaults change behavior when post-intervention effort is required? Evidence from education

Behlen, Lars and Himmler, Oliver and Jaeckle, Robert (2022): Can defaults change behavior when post-intervention effort is required? Evidence from education.

Abstract

Little is known about the effectiveness of defaults whenmoving the target outcome requires substantial post-intervention effort. In two field experiments, we change the university exam sign-up procedure to “opt-out” for a single exam (Exp1), and for many exams (Exp2). Both interventions increase sign-up at the beginning of the semester. Downstream, at the end of the semester, opt-out increases exam participation for a single but not for many exams. For the single exam, effects on passing are heterogeneous: students responsive to unrelated university requests convert increased sign-ups into passed exams. For non-responsive students, increased sign-ups result in failed exams due to no-shows. Defaults can thus be effective but need to be carefully targeted.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Default, Randomized Field Experiment, Higher Education
• Subjects: C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods > C9 - Design of Experiments > C93 - Field Experiments; I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I2 - Education and Research Institutions > I23 - Higher Education ; Research Institutions

References

Abadie, A., and Gay, S. (2006). The impact of presumed consent legislation on cadaveric organ donation: a cross-country study. Journal of Health Economics, 25(4), 599–620.

Altmann, S., Falk, A., and Grunewald, A. (2021). Communicating through defaults. mimeo.

Altmann, S., Falk, A.,Heidhues, P., Jayaraman, R., and Teirlinck, M. (2019). Defaults and donations: Evidence from a field experiment. Review of Economics and Statistics, 101(5), 808–826.

Angrist, J., Autor, D., and Pallais, A. (2020). Marginal effects of merit aid for low-income students (Tech. Rep.). National Bureau of Economic Research.

Angrist, J., and Pischke, J.-S. (2008). Mostly harmless econometrics. Princeton university press.

Bergman, P., Lasky-Fink, J., and Rogers, T. (2020). Simplification and defaults affect adoption and impact of technology, but decision makers do not realize it. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 158, 66–79.

Beshears, J., Choi, J. J., Laibson, D., and Madrian, B. C. (2009). The importance of default options for retirement saving outcomes: Evidence from the united states. In Social security policy in a changing environment (pp. 167–195). University of Chicago Press.

Blumenstock, J., Callen, M., and Ghani, T. (2018). Why do defaults affect behavior? experimental evidence from afghanistan. The American Economic Review, 108(10), 2868–2901.

Brown, J. R., Farrell, A. M., and Weisbenner, S. J. (2012). The downside of defaults (Tech. Rep.). National Bureau of Economic Research.

Brown, J. R., and Previtero, A. (2014). Procrastination, present-biased preferences, and financial behaviors (Tech. Rep.). National Bureau of Economic Research.

Bruhn,M., andMcKenzie, D. (2009). In pursuit of balance: Randomization in practice in development field experiments. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 1(4), 200–232.

Bryan, C. J., Tipton, E., and Yeager, D. S. (2021). Behavioural science is unlikely to change the world without a heterogeneity revolution. Nature Human Behaviour, 5(8), 980–989.

Carroll, G. D., Choi, J. J., Laibson, D., Madrian, B. C., and Metrick, A. (2009). Optimal defaults and active decisions. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 124(4), 1639–1674.

Choi, J. J., Laibson, D., Madrian, B. C., and Metrick, A. (2004). For better or for worse: Default effects and 401 (k) savings behavior. In Perspectives on the economics of aging (pp. 81–126). University of Chicago Press.

Cox, J. C., Kreisman, D., and Dynarski, S. (2020). Designed to fail: Effects of the default option and information complexity on student loan repayment. Journal of Public Economics, 192, 104298.

DellaVigna, S., and Gentzkow, M. (2010). Persuasion: empirical evidence. Annual Review of Economics, 2(1), 643–669.

DellaVigna, S., and Kaplan, E. (2007). The fox news effect: Media bias and voting. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 122(3), 1187–1234.

DellaVigna, S., and Linos, E. (2020). Rcts to scale: Comprehensive evidence from two nudge units. Econometrica (forthcoming).

De Paola, M., and Scoppa, V. (2015). Procrastination, academic success and the effectiveness of a remedial program. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 115, 217-236.

Dinner, I., Johnson, E. J., Goldstein, D. G., and Liu, K. (2011). Partitioning default effects: why people choose not to choose. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 17(4), 332. 21

Egebark, J., and Ekström, M. (2016). Can indifference make the world greener? Journal of Environmental Economics andManagement, 76, 1–13.

Heffetz, O., O’Donoghue, T., and Schneider,H. S. (2021). Reminders work, but for whom? evidence from new york city parking-ticket recipients. American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, forthcoming.

Himmler, O., Jäckle, R., and Weinschenk, P. (2019). Soft commitments, reminders, and academic performance. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 11(2), 114–42.

Jachimowicz, J. M., Duncan, S., Weber, E. U., and Johnson, E. J. (2019). When and why defaults influence decisions: A meta-analysis of default effects. Behavioural Public Policy, 3(2), 159–186.

Johnson, E. J., and Goldstein, D. (2003). Do defaults save lives? American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Johnson, E. J., and Goldstein, D. G. (2004). Defaults and donation decisions. Transplantation, 78(12), 1713–1716.

Kraft, M. A. (2020). Interpreting effect sizes of education interventions. Educational Researcher, 49(4), 241–253.

Kramer II, D. A., Lamb, C. J., and Page, L. C. (2021). The effects of default choice on student loan borrowing: Experimental evidence from a public research university (Tech. Rep.). National Bureau of Economic Research.

Madrian, B. C., and Shea, D. F. (2001). The power of suggestion: Inertia in 401 (k) participation and savings behavior. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 116(4), 1149–1187.

McKenzie, C. R., Liersch, M. J., and Finkelstein, S. R. (2006). Recommendations implicit in policy defaults. Psychological Science, 17(5), 414–420.

Mertens, S., Herberz, M., Hahnel, U. J., and Brosch, T. (2022). The effectiveness of nudging: A meta-analysis of choice architecture interventions across behavioral domains. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(1).

Morgan, K. L., and Rubin, D. B. (2012). Rerandomization to improve covariate balance in experiments. The Annals of Statistics, 40(2), 1263–1282.

Nosek, B. A., and Errington, T. M. (2017). Reproducibility in cancer biology: Making sense of replications. Elife, 6, e23383.

OECD. (2019). Education at a glance 2019. Retrieved from https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/content/publication/f8d7880d-en doi: https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1787/f8d7880d-en

Reuben, E., Sapienza, P., and Zingales, L. (2015). Procrastination and impatience. Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, 58, 63-76.

Rogers, T., and Frey, E. (2014). Changing behavior beyond the here and now. Statistisches Bundesamt Deutschland. (2020). Bildung und kultur - studierende an hochschulen. (http://www.destatis.de/DE/Themen/Gesellschaft-Umwelt/Bildung- Forschung-Kultur/Hochschulen/Publikationen/Downloads-Hochschulen/studierendehochschulen- endg-2110410207004.pdf?)

Sunstein, C. R. (2013). Deciding by default. U. Pa. L. Rev., 162, 1. Tannenbaum, D., Fox, C. R., and Rogers, T. (2017). On themisplaced politics of behavioural policy interventions. Nature Human Behaviour, 1(7), 1–7.