Girl Power? An analysis of peer effects using exogenous changes in the gender make-up of the peer group

Steven Proud ()

The Centre for Market and Public Organisation from Department of Economics, University of Bristol, UK

Abstract: The effect of a child’s peers has long been regarded as an important factor in affecting their educational outcomes. However, these effects follow several different mechanisms and are often difficult to estimate, due to unobserved selection. This paper builds on the work of Hoxby (2000) and uses exogenous changes in the proportion of girls within UK school cohorts to estimate the effect of a more female peer group. I include estimates of effects at a classroom level for schools that appear to contain only one class per cohort to estimate the direct effect of a peer group. Further, I examine if there is a differential effect of boys and girls with differing socioeconomic status, and also examine the effect of a more female peer group on a child’s value added score. I find large significant negative effects of a more female peer group on boy’s outcomes in English, whilst in maths and science, both boys and girls benefit from a more able peer group up until age 11.

Keywords: peer groups; education (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J13 D1 I21 I38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu, nep-lab, nep-soc and nep-ure
Date: 2008-01
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Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bri:cmpowp:08/186

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