On the Mechanisms of Ability Peer Effects

Alexandra de Gendre and Nicolas Salamanca

Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series from Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne

Abstract: Studying with higher ability peers increases student performance, yet we have little idea why. We exploit random assignment of students to classrooms and find positive peer effects on test scores. With very rich data on seventeen potential mechanisms, we then estimate how peer effects on attitudes, parents, etc. could drive these results. Higher-achieving peers reduce student effort, increase student university aspirations, increase parental time investments, and have precise null effects elsewhere. None of these mechanisms, however, explain our peer effect on test scores. Our findings question the prevailing empirical approach to understanding the mechanisms underlying academic peer effects.

Keywords: Random assignment; standardized test; mediation analysis; parental investment; school inputs (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D13 I23 I26 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 93pp
Date: 2020-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hrm, nep-net and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://melbourneinstitute.unimelb.edu.au/__data/a ... 505685/wp2020n19.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: On the Mechanisms of Ability Peer Effects (2020)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iae:iaewps:wp2020n19

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series from Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010 Australia. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sheri Carnegie ().