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Title: Working When No One Is Watching: Motivation, Test Scores, and Economic Success
Resulting in 1 citation.
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Segal, Carmit |
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Working When No One Is Watching: Motivation, Test Scores, and Economic Success Management Science 58,8 (August 2012): 1438-1457. Also: http://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/abs/10.1287/mnsc.1110.1509 Cohort(s): NLSY79 Publisher: Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences Keyword(s): Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB); Earnings; Economic Well-Being; Motivation; Personality/Big Five Factor Model or Traits; Test Scores/Test theory/IRT; Tests and Testing Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. This paper provides evidence that scores on simple, low-stakes tests are associated with future economic success because the scores also reflect test takers' personality traits associated with their level of intrinsic motivation. To establish this, I use the coding speed test that was administered without incentives to participants in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY). I show that, controlling for cognitive ability, the coding speed scores are correlated with future earnings of male NLSY participants. I provide evidence that the coding speed scores relate to intrinsic motivation. I show that the scores of the highly motivated, though less educated, group (potential recruits to the U.S. military), are higher than the NLSY participants' scores. I use controlled experiments to show directly that intrinsic motivation is an important component of the unincentivized coding speed scores and that it relates to test takers' personality traits. |
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Bibliography Citation
Segal, Carmit. "Working When No One Is Watching: Motivation, Test Scores, and Economic Success." Management Science 58,8 (August 2012): 1438-1457.
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