Peer Effects and Textbooks in Primary Education: Evidence from Francophone Sub-Saharan Africa

Markus Frölich () and Katharina Michaelowa ()

No 1519, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)

Abstract: As opposed to many other school inputs, textbooks have frequently been demonstrated to significantly foster student achievement. Using the rich data set provided by the 'Program on the Analysis of Education Systems' (PASEC) for five francophone, sub-Saharan African countries, this paper goes beyond the estimation of direct effects of textbooks on students' learning and focuses on peer effects resulting from textbooks owned by students' classmates. Applying and extending nonparametric estimation methods from the treatment evaluation literature we separate the direct effect of textbooks from their peer effect. The latter clearly dominates but depends upon the initial level of textbook availability.

Keywords: primary education; student achievement; evaluation; nonparametric estimation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C14 C21 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr and nep-ure
Date: 2005-03
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Related works:
Working Paper: Peer Effects and Textbooks in Primary Education: Evidence from Francophone Sub-Saharan Africa (2005)
Working Paper: Peer effects and textbooks in primary education: Evidence from francophone sub-Saharan Africa (2005)
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