Can rank-based non-monetary rewards improve student attendance? Experimental evidence from India

Abstract

Student absenteeism is an important concern for many academic institutions around the world. We test whether a rank-based attendance game, incentivized by non-monetary rewards, improves attendance at a soft skills training school in India. We randomly assigned 3784 students, studying in 216 classrooms to control and treatment groups. On average, we find a positive but statistically insignificant effect of the treatment on attendance rates. However, we find the intervention increases attendance for students in the middle and lower end of the attendance distribution by 3.8–6.5 percentage points, depending on their ranking in the distribution and the number of students they compete with. Our heterogeneity analysis suggests that such an intervention may be more effective for students of school-going age, particularly boys and low-ability students.