Does Leadership Status Matter to Educational Performance? Evidence from an Experimental Study

Abstract This study examines whether assigning students to leadership roles can enhance academic performance. We conducted an experiment at two universities in Vietnam, where students were randomly assigned to teams of two to four members, and one student in each team was randomly designated as the team leader. Team leaders were further randomized into four treatment arms: (i) receiving a motivational email expressing the teacher’s trust, (ii) receiving a “double-weight scheme” email indicating that their exam score would count twice toward the team average, (iii) receiving both emails, (iv) receiving neither. The three teams with the highest average scores in each class received compliments from the instructor. Midterm and final exam scores served as outcome measures. The results show that merely holding a leadership position increases midterm performance and course interest, while receiving motivational or “double-weight” emails significantly improves final exam scores, suggesting that recognition and responsibility reinforce academic effort.