Voluntary Practice Test Effects on Economics Exam Performance

This dataset supports a study on the impact of incentivized voluntary practice tests on final exam performance in an introductory economics course at a German university. The analysis uses quasi-experimental methods and an honest causal forest to estimate treatment effects, finding performance gains of 11–17% with significant heterogeneity among student groups. The dataset contains information on student participation in voluntary tests, final exam scores, and potential spillover effects to other courses.

Use Cases

• Analyze the relationship between voluntary practice test participation and final exam performance to quantify the 11–17% improvement effect.
• Use quasi-experimental methods to estimate causal treatment effects of incentivized testing in a highly endogenous setting.
• Apply an honest causal forest model to document treatment-effect heterogeneity, particularly among mid-performing students.
• Investigate potential negative spillovers to performance in other same-semester courses using course performance data.
• Examine the distribution of bonus points awarded for voluntary test participation and their correlation with final outcomes.

Strengths

• Data is derived from a university setting with a quasi-experimental design, allowing for causal inference.
• The study provides placebo-validated causal estimates in a context where participation is endogenously selected.
• Analysis documents substantial treatment-effect heterogeneity using an honest causal forest method.

Limitations

• The dataset is specific to a single introductory economics course at a German university, limiting generalizability.
• Key structural details like row count, column names, and file formats are unknown from the provided input.
• The temporal and specific geographic scope within the university is not detailed.

Provenance

Source

Harvard Dataverse, authored by Baule, Tim.

Collection Method

Collected from a university setting where voluntary practice tests were offered with bonus point incentives, analyzed using quasi-experimental methods.

Freshness

Last updated on 2026-02-23.

Geography

A German university setting.