Thanks to the effort of two local educational authorities, in two regions of North Italy (Valle d'Aosta and the autonomous province of Trento) the PISA 2009 test was re-administered to the same students one year later. This paper is the first to analyse in the OECD-PISA context the potential...

Many organizations use onboarding programs to assist newcomers with the transition process. Are brief social interactions during such programs sufficient to create lasting performance spillovers? Exploiting quasi-random assignment to groups of a two-day freshman orientation program for...

To study whether a soft commitment device can help students succeed, we conduct a randomized field experiment and follow a cohort of tertiary students over six years. Students can commit to following their recommended study program structure, and they receive reminders each semester. This easily...

Many organizations use onboarding programs to assist newcomers with the transition process. Are brief social interactions during such programs sufficient to create lasting performance spillovers? Exploiting quasi-random assignment to groups of a two-day freshman orientation program for...

To study whether a soft commitment device can help students succeed, we conduct a randomized field experiment and follow a cohort of tertiary students over six years. Students can commit to following their recommended study program structure, and they receive reminders each semester. This easily...