Estimating Peer Effects in Swedish High School using School, Teacher, and Student Fixed Effects

Krister Sund (krister.sund@sofi.su.se)
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Krister Sund: Swedish Institute for Social Research, Stockholm University, Postal: SE-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden

No 8/2007, Working Paper Series from Stockholm University, Swedish Institute for Social Research

Abstract: In this paper I use a rich dataset in order to observe each student over time in different subjects and courses. Unlike most peer studies, I identify the peers and the teachers that each student has had in every classroom. This enables me to handle the simultaneity and selection problems, which are inherent in estimating peer effects in the educational production function. I use a value-added approach with lagged peer achievement to avoid simultaneity and extensive fixed effects to rule out selection. To be specific, it is within-student across-subject variation with additional controls for time-invariant teacher characteristics that is exploited. Moreover, I identify students that are attending classes in which they have no peers from earlier education which otherwise could bias the result. I find positive peer effects for the average student but also that there is a non-linear dimension. Lower-achieving students benefit more from an increase in both mean peer achievement and the spread in peer achievement within the classroom than their higher-achieving peers.

Keywords: Economics of education; Peer effects (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 28 pages
Date: 2007-05-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu, nep-hrm, nep-soc and nep-ure
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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