An Analysis of Student Effort and Performance in the Finance Principles Course

This paper documents the relation between performance and effort by students in an introductory financial management course. Unlike the handful of previous studies that rely on self-reported data, we use objectively measured data on effort. We measure effort by the number of attempts made and the amount of time spent by students on repeatable computerized quizzes. We find that effort positively influences student performance. Given the positive link between effort and performance that we find here, we encourage educators to motivate students to exert effort in their education.