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Abstract
We investigate the market in bespoke essays from commercial providers which students buy
to submit at their University. We conduct choice experiments at 3 universities to investigate
students’willingness to enter the market. Half of the sample reveal a willingness to buy.
We identify valuations of essays of varying grade and how these values decay as students’
assessments of their own abilities, and the penalty if caught, increase. A choice experiment
over monetary gambles yields individual-speci…c risk aversion estimates which signi…cantly
a¤ect the probability that a student will buy, as does having English as their …rst language.