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...

We present first experimental evidence that relative performance feedback improves both the speed and quality with which challenging long-term tasks are completed. Providing university students with ongoing relative feedback on accumulated course credits accelerates graduation by 0.12 SD, and...

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...

Feedback can help individuals put their performance into perspective, especially when transitioning into a new environment such as university or a different job. In a randomized field experiment we give first-year university students normatively framed relative performance feedback about their...

In a randomized field experiment, we give first-year students in higher education feedback on their relative performance and show that the type of feedback matters, as feedback increases performance only if it informs the student that they placed above average in the past. We reproduce the...

Using randomized field experiments, I investigate the effectiveness of two social information interventions at increasing participation in a voluntary remedial math course for university students. In Intervention 1, incoming students receive invitation letters with information about the course...

In the context of a voluntary remedial math course for university students, we conduct randomized field experiments to study whether social information can help counteract low participation rates. Incoming students receive postal invitation and reminder letters that inform them about past...

We present first experimental evidence that relative performance feedback improves both the speed and quality with which challenging long-term tasks are completed. Providing university students with ongoing relative feedback on accumulated course credits accelerates graduation by 0.12 SD, and...