Measuring peer effects in the Brazilian school system

Sergio Firpo, Hugo Jales and Cristine Pinto

Applied Economics, 2015, vol. 47, issue 32, 3414-3438

Abstract: 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.

Date: 2015
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/00036846.2015.1016207 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
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:taf:applec:v:47:y:2015:i:32:p:3414-3438

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/RAEC20

DOI: 10.1080/00036846.2015.1016207

Access Statistics for this article

Applied Economics is currently edited by Anita Phillips

More articles in Applied Economics from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().