Do secrets come out? Statistical evaluation of student cheating

We suggest an original method of student cheating evaluation based on the comparison of students’ grades in exams in class, home assignments and experimental homework. The data for the study is collected from the survey of 2012–2013 sophomores of the International College of Economics and Finance at the National Research University Higher School of Economics in Moscow, Russia. At the end of the course in Statistics in addition to standard assignments (homework and exams) students were given experimental homework with a ban on cooperation among them. The violation of this rule was qualified as cheating. The scale of cooperation is measured and then tested through the stochastic frontier technique; it reveals connection with the GPA level, students’ expectations of the cheaters’ share and students’ moral norms. We also find different behavioral patterns for high and low performing students as well as country specific context of student cheating behavior.