Improving students' performance via relative performance feedback : evidence from three field experiments.

Summary Today's there is no doubt on the benefits of education. The life without it is impossible in the majority of societies. Schooling is not an option any more. it is a "Must" in many modern societies. The benefits of education are also known to the majority of people and they know that more education means better preparation for future life. Governments also have recognized that there are a lot of benefits and positive externalities in public education and almost in all countries there is a level of compulsory education which children should attend school up to a special level. As there is no doubt on the importance and benefits of education for societies we do not try to prove it here. What we would like to do is to find a costless, easy to implement, and psychologi¬cally acceptable mechanism to improve students' performance in their current situation. This mechanism should be designed carefully as children, especially girls, are so sensitive to the design (Croson and Gneezy 2009) and with a small change we would not achieve the desired goal. Of course after such a design it should be tested in real world to see whether it works or not.