Peer effects in Austrian schools

This study deals with educational production in Austria and is focused on the impact of schoolmates on students’ academic outcomes. We use PISA 2000 and 2003 data to estimate peer effects for 15 and 16 year old students. School fixed effects are employed to address the potential self-selection of students into schools and peer groups. The estimations show significant positive effects of the peer group on students’ reading achievement, and less so for mathematics. The peer effect in reading is larger for students from less favorable social backgrounds. Furthermore, quantile regressions suggest peer effects in reading to be asymmetric in favor of low-ability students, meaning that students with lower skills benefit more from being exposed to clever peers, whereas those with higher skills do not seem to be affected much.     

What can be learned about peer effects using college roommates? Evidence from new survey data and students from disadvantaged backgrounds

Previous papers which examine the importance of peer effects using exogenous variation in college roommates have found only very limited evidence that a student's first year grade performance is influenced by the observable academic characteristics of his/her roommate. One possible explanation for this finding is that peer effects do not play a particularly important role in the higher education setting. However, another very plausible explanation for this finding is that peer effects are important in higher education but that these previous empirical efforts have simply not been “looking in the right place” to find the evidence of peer effects in this setting. Thus, while these papers have received considerable attention due to the general difficulty of finding credible exogenous variation in peer quality, they have difficulty answering the most fundamental question related to peer effects in this higher education—whether peer effects play an important role or not. This paper provides depth to the peer effects literature using unique new survey and administrative data.     

Better peers,better scores? A study of twin junior high school graduates in Taiwan

Using data of twin students graduating from junior high schools between 2002 and 2004 in Taiwan, we estimate the effects of peers on high school joint entrance examination performance. To alleviate the potential endogeneity of peer educational achievement, linear models with twin fixed effect and instrumental variables are estimated. Quantile, quantile with twin fixed effect and quantile with instrument variables regressions are also implemented to determine whether estimated peer effects differ at various locations of the testing scores’ conditional distributions. Positive and statistically significant peer effects are found to exist at the mean and at different quantile levels.     

Measuring peer effects in the Brazilian school system

Using the identification strategy proposed by Graham and Hahn (2005), we estimate the magnitude of classmate effects on math scores using Brazilian data from 2005. In addition, we provide a detailed discussion about the identification of endogenous peer effects in the linear in means models. Our results show that both peer characteristics (exogenous peer effects) – like race, socioeconomic status and gender – and peer actions (endogenous peer effects) are important determinants of students’ outcomes in the fifth grade of elementary school. Our estimates of endogenous peer effects are about 0.008 of 1 SD of math test scores, which can be interpreted as evidence of a so-called ‘conformist’ individual behaviour, under which students face large costs to exert effort levels that are distant from what is believed to be the norm in the classroom. Those estimates of endogenous peer effects imply a social multiplier of about 1.67.     

Heterogeneous effects of peer tutoring: Evidence from rural Chinese middle schools

Peer tutoring is a well-known type of peer-assisted learning, which has proven to be a cost-effective intervention. We designed a peer tutoring program that matches high-performing students as tutors to their low-performing classmates and provides non-monetary incentives for them to study together and improve the pair’s academic performance. We implemented the program and tested the effects in rural Chinese middle schools. The program significantly improved the tutors’ math scores and produced other benefits regarding study attitude and social behaviors. However, the program did not improve the tutees’ math scores and instead augmented their learning stress. The most compelling explanation is that the set-up of the program brought to light the tutees’ standing, by design, in the bottom half of their class.     

Natural disasters and university enrolment: evidence from L’Aquila earthquake

Although there are several studies looking at the effect of natural disasters on economic growth, less attention has been dedicated to their impact on educational outcomes, especially in more developed countries. We use the synthetic control method to examine how the L’Aquila earthquake affected subsequent enrolment at the local university. This issue has wide economic implications as the University of L’Aquila made a large contribution to the local economy before the earthquake. Our results indicate that the earthquake had no statistically significant effect on first-year enrolment at the University of L’Aquila in the three academic years after the disaster. This natural disaster, however, caused a compositional change in the first-year student population, with a substantial increase in the number of students aged 21 or above. This is likely to have been driven by post-disaster measures adopted in order to mitigate the expected negative effects on enrolment triggered by the earthquake.     

Peer group effects on the academic performance of Italian students

We analyse peer effects among students of a middle-sized Italian public university. We explain students’ average grade in exams passed during their Second Level Degree course on the basis of their pre-determined measures of abilities, personal characteristics and peer group abilities. Thanks to a rich administrative data set, we are able to build a variety of definitions of peer groups, describing different kinds of students’ interaction, based on classes attended together or exams taken in the same session. Self-selection problems are handled through Two-Stage Least Squares estimations using as an instrument, the exogenous assignment of students to different teaching classes in the compulsory courses attended during their First Level Degree course. We find statistically significant positive peer group effects, which are robust to the different definitions of peer group and to different measures of abilities.     

Exploring peer effects in education in Latin America and the Caribbean

This paper assesses peer group influence on academic performance of primary school students in Latin America and the Caribbean. Based on TERCE data set, we investigate peer effects in mathematics, language and sciences tests outcomes among sixth grade students. We apply a social interaction model which allows to identify endogenous and exogenous peer effects while controlling for group-level fixed effects. We explore some heterogeneities related to the school type (private, public or rural). The estimates suggest the existence of endogenous peer effects but their magnitude and significance depend on subject and school type.     

Peer effects in medical school

Using data on the universe of students who graduated from US medical schools between 1996 and 1998, we examine whether the abilities and specialty preferences of a medical school class affect a student's academic achievement in medical school and his choice of specialty. We mitigate the selection problem by including school-specific fixed effects, and show that this method yields an upper bound on peer effects for our data. We estimate positive peer effects that disappear when school-specific fixed effects are added to control for the endogeneity of a peer group. We find no evidence that peer effects are stronger for blacks, that peer groups are formed along racial lines, or that students with relatively low ability benefit more from their peers than students with relatively high-ability. However, we do find some evidence that peer groups form along gender lines.     

基础教育中的同伴效应估计

对基础教育阶段不良同伴带来的短期和中长期效应的评估已经成为劳动经济学的热点话题.文章根据最新的2014年中国教育追踪调查( China Education Panel Survey, CEPS)微观数据,考察了不良同伴对学生标准化考试成绩的影响.为了克服反射(reflection)和自选择问题带来的估计偏误,文章依据班级上不良学生的比例而非传统文献采用的同伴成绩来刻画学生所处的班级环境,并控制了组群的自然特征.在控制学生个体特征和家庭因素后发现,学生所在班级中存在不良同伴,会对学生自身的学习成绩造成显著的负面影响,这一作用在高年级(初三)表现得尤为明显.班级不良同伴比例提高10%会带来平均成绩下降约2分.分样本的回归显示,男性学生、家庭经济状况不佳的学生和住校生的学习成绩对班级不良同伴的反应更敏感.而学校类型的异质性分析则表明,同伴效应在办学情况较差的学校和乡镇/农村学校表现得更明显.进一步的分位数回归结果表明,不良同伴产生的负面效应对成绩较差的学生影响更大.文章的研究发现有利于丰富学界对教育生产函数的认识,也为今后的教育政策提供有益参考.     

How much versus who: which social norms information is more effective?

We conduct an experiment to investigate how different types of information about social norms affect individuals’ stated contributions to a specific pro-environment program, a student ‘green fee’, in the context of a referendum. Compared to students that receive no information about peer contributions, on average, students that receive information about the dollar value range of contributions at peer institutions contribute less while students that learn about the high percentage of students voting ‘yes’ on green fee programs at peer institutions contribute more. The results are economically significant as the absolute values of both effects represent approximately 25% of average contributions. These results suggest that information about participation rates can be more effective than information about dollar amounts in encouraging contributions to environmental initiatives. Of interest to stated preference researchers, we find that results do not change when controlling for self-selection into survey completion.     

Peer effects in computer assisted learning: evidence from a randomized experiment

We conduct a large scale experiment to investigate peer effects in computer assisted learning (CAL). Identification relies on three levels of randomization. We find an average 0.17 standard deviation improvement in math scores among primary school students. This average effect is the same for students treated individually or in pairs, implying that peer effects double the learning benefit from a given equipment. Among paired students, poor performers benefit more from CAL when paired with good performers and vice versa. Average performers benefit equally irrespective of who they are paired with. This suggests that the treatment is dominated by knowledge exchange between peers. We also find that CAL treatment reduces the dispersion in math scores and that the beneficial effects of CAL can be strengthened if weak students are systematically paired with strong students.     

First-Year Study Success in Economics and Econometrics: The Role of Gender,Motivation, and Math Skills

In this study, the authors investigate the relationships among gender, math skills, motivation, and study success in economics and econometrics. They find that female students have stronger intrinsic motivation, yet lower study confidence than their male counterparts. They also find weak evidence for a gender gap over the entire first-year curriculum of economics or econometrics. In terms of size and significance, their estimates of gender effects rank below the effects of preparatory education and motivation.     

Physical appearance and peer effects in academic performance

A large literature examines the role of peer effects in shaping student academic outcomes. This article adds to that literature by introducing a new kind of peer effect – the effect of classmate physical appearance. We document that college students are assigned higher grades when in a classroom with peers who are rated as very attractive. This effect is strongest for female students and appears to be concentrated among the courses of younger and male instructors.     

Good students,avid readers: The cost of academic success

The effects of reading habits on academic performances have been carefully investigated, but little is known about the effects of academic achievements on students’ leisure reading. This paper investigates this issue by estimating the effects of academic achievements, proxied by the number of exams passed, on leisure reading, measured by the number of leisure books read in a year. Using an online survey submitted to the students at the University of Bologna, Italy, we adopt a two-step control-function technique to control for endogeneity. The empirical evidence suggests the existence of a negative relationship between students’ academic achievements and the time devoted to leisure reading. This result holds for students of different fields of study and is stronger for male students. The Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition supports the existence of a gender-specific idiosyncratic effect.     

Is retention beneficial to low-achieving students? Evidence from Portugal

The role of retention as an educational tool to overcome under-achievement is a hotly debated issue, especially given that the results in the literature are not consensual. The Portuguese case is particularly well suited to study this issue: all students must take standardized national exams at specific grades. Moreover, the available dataset tracks the performance of students over time. Therefore, we are able to measure the impact of students’ retention on their subsequent academic performance since we can control for each student’s initial level of ability at the moment of retention. We use a propensity score matching approach, in which retained and promoted 4th grade students are matched according to their socioeconomic characteristics and the scores obtained in national exams. To address potentially remaining endogeneity biases, we also use the culture of retention at school level as an instrumental variable. The results suggest that in some situations retentions may have on average a positive impact on future achievement. However, in the cases where statistically significant impacts are found, the estimated magnitudes are relatively small. Our results are relevant for countries with high retention rates that are considering alternative educational policies to promote students’ achievement.     

A model of vertically differentiated education

We analyze the allocation of students who differ in their ability to two school types. We assume that there are peer effects (students learn more the better their classmates) and that the expected income after school also depends on the average productivity of peers. We derive the allocation under free school choice and decentralized determination of the academic level; we show that, compared to the social optimum, the level is suboptimal and too many students attend the better school type. A social planner can improve on the allocation under free school choice by prescribing a higher academic level.     

Peer heterogeneity,school tracking and students’ performances: evidence from PISA 2006

This paper analyses the interaction between school-tracking policies and peer effects in OECD countries. Using the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2006 data set, we show that linear peer effects are slightly concave-shaped in both early-tracking and comprehensive educational systems, but generally stronger in the early-tracking one. Second, and more interestingly, the effect of peer heterogeneity goes in opposite directions in the two systems. In both student- and school-level estimates, peer heterogeneity reduces students’ achievements in the comprehensive system while it has a positive impact in the early-tracking one. This reversal effect is robust to different definitions of early-tracking system, to the inclusion of pseudo-school fixed effects and to the exclusion of outlier countries. Finally, peer effects are stronger for low-ability students in both groups of countries.     

Choice of specialization: do peers matter?

Social influence is an important factor in learning and decision-making. We estimate peer influence on student choice of specialization using data on undergraduate students of a Russian university. Information about individual social ties has been gathered from a questionnaire survey. We show that specialization choice is significantly influenced by friends as well as by study partners. The strongest effect is produced by friends who are study partners and those who have similar academic achievements. Reciprocal friendship ties have a stronger influence on the choice than nonreciprocal ones. Also, the decision is affected by classmates with similar academic achievement. The results allow us to better understand the mechanisms of peer effects in the specialization choice.     

Time to learn? The organizational structure of schools and student achievement

Utilizing parametric and nonparametric techniques, we asses the impact of a heretofore relatively unexplored ‘input’ in the educational process, time allocation, on the distribution of academic achievement. Our results indicate that school year length and the number and average duration of classes affect student achievement. However, the effects are not homogeneous – in terms of both direction and magnitude – across the distribution. We find that test scores in the upper tail of the distribution benefit from a shorter school year, while a longer school year increases test scores in the lower tail. Furthermore, test scores in the lower quantiles increase when students have at least eight classes lasting 46–50 min on average, while test scores in the upper quantiles increase when students have seven classes lasting 45 min or less or 51 min or more.