This article's authors use student transcript data to identify differences in the study of economics among Black students at HBCUs and PWIs. The data show that a higher fraction of Black students at HBCUs initially intend to study economics, relative to those at PWIs (4.0% vs. 1.3% of micro principles enrollees) and persist in the major (9.4% vs.…

In this randomized controlled trial with controls for student characteristics, the authors used a loss-aversion strategy to test whether students achieve greater learning gains from combining research-based instructional strategies with loss aversion. Students in the control group began the class with no grades and built their course average by…

The authors of this article examine the potential for increased student learning and retention through more frequent assignments. They conduct a field experiment that investigates whether student knowledge retention can be improved by increasing the frequency of homework assignments, motivating students to have more exposure to the material, and…

Learning-focused teaching must take into account students' cognitive processes. Chew and Cerbin (2021) offer a conceptual framework based on nine interacting cognitive challenges faced by students to guide instructors toward teaching practices that provide the best opportunities for students to learn. The goal of this guideline article is to…

Taking good notes is linked to success in college. However, increased use of computers to take notes necessitates reconsideration of the linkages between note-taking and learning. One difficulty is disentangling the latent student characteristics that may correlate with computer use from the actual effect of computer note-taking on information…

Using student transcripts from six institutions over a 23-year timespan, the authors investigate the movement of students into and out of the economics major. Considerable movement between majors occurs with 83 percent of economics graduates switching in after their first principles course. These eventual majors come from a variety of sources, but…

The concept of mindfulness has received significant attention in recent years as the effects of ubiquitous distractions become more apparent in the workplace and in education. This study examines the relationship between three measures of mindfulness and student performance among a sample of 922 students in introductory economics classes from two…

Student and team performance in 17 sections of an introductory microeconomic theory course taught using team-based learning are analyzed to determine what measurable characteristics of teams influence team and individual outcomes. Results suggest that team performance is positively influenced by the grade point average of the top individual on the…

The authors' data contain inter- and intra-class variations in experiments to which students in a principles of microeconomics course were exposed. These variations allowed the estimation of the effect on student achievement from the experimental treatment generally, as well as effects associated with participation in specific experiments. The…

In this article, the authors present the findings of a pretest-posttest measurement of the economic knowledge of students in introductory economics courses in undergraduate study programs in Germany. The responses of 403 students to 14 items selected from the "Test of Economic Literacy" (Soper and Walstad 1987) were analyzed to identify…

In this study, the authors employed a quasi-experimental research design to examine the efficacy of a cooperative learning pedagogy (i.e., think-pair-share exercises) integrated into sections of microeconomic principles. Materials, exercises, and assessment instruments for all study sections are identical except for the nature of the…

The authors' main purpose in this article is to examine whether peer presence, measured by overall class attendance rate, has any significant effect on college students' academic performance. They use a rich dataset from an intermediate microeconomics course from the fall of 2008 to the spring of 2013 at a public university in Taiwan. The…

Using 641 principles of economics students across four universities, the authors examine whether providing monetary incentives in a prisoner's dilemma game enhances student learning as measured by a set of common exam questions. Subjects either play a two-player prisoner's dilemma game for real money, play the same game with no money at stake…

The authors analyze matched administrative survey data on economics students enrolled in two econometrics courses offered in consecutive terms at a major public university in Spain to assess the impact of lecture attendance and study time on academic performance. Using proxy variables in a cross-sectional regression setting, they find a positive…

In this article, the authors illustrate how incentives can improve student performance in introductory economics courses. They implemented a policy experiment in a large introductory economics class in which they reminded students who scored below an announced cutoff score on the midterm exam about the risk of failing the course. The authors…