The Role of Homework on Student Learning Outcomes: Evidence from a Field Experiment

Abstract

This paper describes a field experiment in the classroom where principles of microeconomics students are randomly assigned into homework-required and not-required groups. We find that homework plays an important role in student learning, especially so for students who initially perform poorly in the course. Students in the homework-required group have higher retention rates, higher test scores (5% to 6%), more good grades (B’s) and lower failure rates. We also study the relationship between endogenous homework submission and test performance using instrumental variable estimation. We find that homework submission has a large positive effect on test performance.