Girls typically have higher grades than boys in school and recent research suggests that part of this gender difference may be due to discrimination of boys in grading. We rigorously test this in a field experiment where a random sample of the same tests in the Swedish language is subject to blind and non-blind grading. The non-blind test score is…

Grade inflation over the past few decades has been a concern for many universities. Course evaluation scores are known to be positively correlated with students' expected grades, and this paper tests whether or not there is an incentive for the instructor to "buy" higher evaluation scores by inflating grades. To test this hypothesis, I…

This study examines a channel, students' nuisance, to explain grade inflation. "Students' nuisance" is defined by "students' pestering the professors for better grades." This paper contains two parts: the game theoretic model and the empirical tests. The model shows that the potential threat of students' nuisance can induce the professors to…

Using data on 4 years of courses at American University, regression results show that actual grades have a significant, positive effect on student evaluations of teaching (SETs), controlling for expected grade and fixed effects for both faculty and courses, and for possible endogeneity. Implications are that the SET is a faulty measure of teaching…

This paper explores the connection between grade inflation and school competition by studying graduates from the Swedish upper secondary schools in 1997. The final grades are compared to the SweSAT national test scores. Single school municipalities are compared with multiple school municipalities in order to study if potential intra-municipal…

Revisits determinants of college student evaluations in a model allowing for the possibility that (expected) grades are simultaneously determined. Estimates evaluations using both ordinary least squares and two-stage least squares, finding that grades do affect a college instructor's evaluation. Results suggest that instructors can "buy" better…