Procrastination, Prompts, and Preferences: Evidence from Daily Records of Self-Directed Learning Activities

Shiga University Working Paper Series No. 110

50 Pages Posted: 7 Feb 2010

See all articles by Rina Kikuchi

Rina Kikuchi

Shiga University

Kazuki Onji

Australian National University - Crawford School of Economics and Government

Date Written: December 7, 2009

Abstract

This paper presents evidence showing that a libertarian paternalistic intervention having significant but uneven effects on the student procrastination of a coursework assignment. We observe the degree of procrastination in a language course at a Japanese university with individuals’ electronic records of daily activities. With a quasi-experiment that generates variations in the frequency of interventions and the preference of students towards the course, we examine the effects of in-class verbal prompts by an instructor on the timing of task completion. We find that prompts affect behavior, especially when reinforced, but the responsiveness depends on the class preferences and the timing of interventions.

Keywords: Time-inconsistent preferences, Monitoring, Skill formation

JEL Classification: I21, J24, D91, C81, D83

Suggested Citation

Kikuchi, Rina and Onji, Kazuki, Procrastination, Prompts, and Preferences: Evidence from Daily Records of Self-Directed Learning Activities (December 7, 2009). Shiga University Working Paper Series No. 110, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1549269 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1549269

Rina Kikuchi

Shiga University ( email )

Hikone, Shiga, 522-8522
United States

Kazuki Onji (Contact Author)

Australian National University - Crawford School of Economics and Government ( email )

Building #132
Australian National University
Canberra 0200
Australia

HOME PAGE: http://www.crawford.anu.edu.au/staff/konji.php