Question

Children in poor neighborhoods often have bleak outlooks on life and see little gain from studying. In a recent experiment, children in poor neighborhoods were paid $100 for each A they earned during a six-week grade reporting cycle. Suppose a participant in this experiment was expending $0 worth of effort in studying for each class before the experiment. Over the next 6 weeks, the student has a math class and an English class, where getting an A in math would require the student to exert $98 worth of effort, while getting an A in English would require the student to exert $84 worth of effort. In this experiment, the student (would or would not) increase time studying for math, and the student (would or would not) increase time studying for English.

Answer 1

In the experiment, the student would likely increase their studying efforts for both math and English, as the reward for an A exceeds the effort required, leading to net gains of $2 and $16, respectively.

Step-by-step explanation:

In an experiment designed to encourage students in poor neighborhoods to study harder by offering monetary rewards, we encounter a scenario where a student is offered $100 for each A they achieve. Prior to the experiment, the student exerted $0 worth of effort on studying. Now, with the possibility of earning $100 for an A, the student evaluates the cost of effort required for an A in their math class, which is $98, and the effort for an English class, costing $84.

Given that the reward ($100) exceeds the effort needed to achieve an A in both math and English, the student would increase the time studying for both subjects. For math, since the effort required is $98 and the reward is $100, there is a net gain of $2, making it economically rational to make the effort. Similarly, for English, the required effort is $84, and with a reward of $100, the net gain is $16, providing even more incentive to study for an A.

The student's decision aligns with basic economic principles of cost-benefit analysis. The incentive structure, in this case, is designed to offset the challenges that students from low socioeconomic backgrounds may face, such as lack of time, resources, and support for their educational endeavors.

Answer 2

For maths; the student would not increase time studying

For English; the student would increase time studying

Step-by-step explanation:

We can make this assertion because we are told that the children are from poor neighborhoods, so they have desire to ease their financial lack.

Further, because they do not see the importance of studying, they likely would avoid the extra effort of $98 for maths when they can exert $84 worth of effort for English which is lower.