on effort, there is little empirical evidence onhow students respond to incentives other than grades and monetary rewards …-in-differences approach to show how program and course policies affect theeffort and performance of students. Our findings indicate that … students perform worse(i) if their effort is rewarded belatedly, (ii) if their effort has little impact on their finalgrade, or …

. Performance fell as the impact of the course on the graduation certificate decreased and the time until students received the … certificate increased. More students failed as they were allowed to resit the exam more often. Both effects depend on ability. We …