Event Details

The Economics Department is delighted to host this seminar

Seminar: Improving the college experience: An encouragement experiment

Danila Serra, Texas A&M University

Wednesday 2^nd April 2025

Engineering 2 (Lecture Theatre) - Room B06

14:00 – 15:30

Abstract: Studies have documented that under-represented university students are less likely to feel like they “belong” in their field, and they tend to score lower in measures of growth mindset. This might contribute to differences in course performance, majoring choices and graduation rates. We implement a field experiment to investigate whether weekly encouraging emails sent out by the Department of Economics, centered around the message “You belong here and you can do this,” have a significant impact on the college experience of economics majors, and in particular of women and under-represented minority students. Further information can be found here.

If you would like to meet with the speaker, please contact Catherine Porter in Economics catherine.porter@lancaster.ac.uk