Making the Grade (But Not Disclosing It): How Withholding Grades Affects Student Behavior and Employment
研究MBA项目中的成绩不披露政策如何削弱成绩与雇主吸引力之间的正向关系，降低学生约4.9%的学术努力，同时促使学生参与更多课外活动并选修更难课程，最终缩短毕业后首份工作的任职时间。
We study the effects of grade nondisclosure (GND) policies implemented within master of business administration (MBA) programs at highly ranked business schools. GND precludes students from disclosing their grades and grade point averages (GPAs) to employers. In the labor market, we find that GND weakens the positive relation between GPA and employer desirability. During the MBA program, we find that GND reduces students’ academic effort for a given course by approximately 4.9% relative to comparable students not subject to the policy. Consistent with our model, in which abilities are potentially correlated and students can substitute effort toward other activities in order to signal GPA-focused abilities, students participate in more extracurricular activities and enroll in more difficult courses under GND. Finally, we show that students’ tenure with their first employers after graduation decreases under GND. This paper was accepted by Suraj Srinivasan, accounting. Supplemental Material: The online appendix and data are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2023.4816 .