Economics Ph.D. Students Database
Economics
Arts & Sciences
Duke University

 HOME > Arts & Sciences > Economics > Ph.D. Students    Search Help Login pdf version printable version 

Publications of Omari H. Swinton    :chronological  by type listing:

%%    
@article{fds50015,
   Author = {Omari H. Swinton},
   Title = {An "A" for Effort: Should College Dropouts Try
             Harder?},
   Year = {2006},
   Month = {October},
   Abstract = {Recent decades have seen a steady increase in college
             enrollment rates, which has not been accompanied by a
             corresponding increase in graduation rates. If this
             discrepancy is at least partly due to insufficient
             “effort” exerted by students, policies that aim at
             rewarding effort explicitly may succeed at increasing
             graduation rates. This paper uses a unique and rich
             administrative data set to analyze the impact of the
             introduction of a new grading policy on performance and
             retention rates at Benedict College, a Historically Black
             College in Columbia, South Carolina. According to the new
             grading policy, grades for freshmen and sophomore courses
             are determined in part by performance on tests and in part
             by measures of “effort” such as attendance and class
             participation. The policy was intended to inspire a sense of
             discipline in students’ attitudes towards academic work,
             in the hope of improving learning and graduation rates.
             However, the data show that the introduction of the new
             grading policy was actually followed by an increase in
             dropout rates, disproportionately due to students with
             pre-college GPAs above the mean. This paper describes a
             simple theoretical model that illustrates how this observed
             change can be a result of the interaction between the
             increased disutility caused by the larger effort required by
             the new policy, and the uncertainly that relates effort to
             knowledge grade, an uncertainly that only disappears after
             the final grades are assigned. Overall, students with lower
             SAT composite scores and lower high school GPAs respond
             better to incentivized effort than students with higher SAT
             composite scores and higher high school GPAs.},
   Key = {fds50015}
}

@article{fds47874,
   Author = {Peter Arcidiacono and Alvin Murphy and Omari H.
             Swinton},
   Title = {Explaining Cross-Racial Differences in Teenage Labor Force
             Participation: Results from a General Equilibrium Search
             Model},
   Year = {2006},
   Abstract = {White teenagers are substantially more likely to search for
             employment than their black counterparts. This occurs
             despite the fact that conditional on race individuals who
             come from poorer families are more likely to search and
             black teenagers come from poorer families. While differences
             in wages between white and black teenagers are small, the
             unemployment rate for black teenagers is over twice that of
             white teenagers. We develop a general equilibrium search
             model where firms are partially able to target their search
             based upon demographics. Differences in the labor market
             explain half of the gap in the search rates between black
             and white teenagers. Removing search targeting substantially
             closes the gap between black and white unemployment
             rates.},
   Key = {fds47874}
}

@article{fds47873,
   Author = {Omari H. Swinton},
   Title = {Grading for Effort: The Success Equals Effort Policy at
             Benedict College},
   Year = {2006},
   Month = {March},
   Abstract = {In the Fall of 2004, Benedict College—a Historically Black
             College in Columbia (SC)–began enforcing a new grading
             policy called Success Equals Effort. Under this new policy,
             students taking freshman and sophomore level courses are
             assigned grades that explicitly reward not only content
             learning (“knowledge” grade) but also measures of effort
             (“effort” grade). This paper describes the details of
             the policy and the reasons for its adoption, and attempts a
             first evaluation of the impact of the grading policy thus
             far.},
   Key = {fds47873}
}

@article{fds47872,
   Author = {Omari H. Swinton},
   Title = {The Effects of Effort Grading on Learning},
   Year = {2006},
   Month = {June},
   Abstract = {In the Fall of 2004, Benedict College—a Historically Black
             College in Columbia (SC)–began enforcing a new grading
             policy called Success Equals Effort. Under this new policy,
             students taking freshman and sophomore level courses are
             assigned grades that explicitly reward not only content
             learning (“knowledge” grade) but also measures of effort
             (“effort” grade). This paper examines the effects of
             effort grading through two stage least squares and fixed
             effect estimates. I find evidence of a strong positive
             correlation of “effort” grade and the “knowledge”
             grade. Under some restrictions this relationship can be
             interpreted as “effort” producing “knowledge”.},
   Key = {fds47872}
}


Duke University * Arts & Sciences * Economics * Faculty * Research * Staff * Master's * Ph.D. * Reload * Login