Right Peer, Right Now? Endogenous Peer Effects and Achievement in Victorian Primary Schools

Duncan McVicar, Julie Moschion () and Christopher Ryan

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

Abstract: This paper presents estimates of endogenous peer effects in pupils’ school achievement using data on national test scores, across multiple subjects and cohorts, for the population of primary school pupils in Years 3 and 5 (aged 7/8 and 9/10 years) in the Australian state of Victoria. Identification is achieved via school-grade fixed effects and instrumental variables (IV), exploiting plausibly random differences in the age distribution of peers and their gender mix across cohorts. The results provide strong evidence for the existence of endogenous peer effects across all subjects, with the IV estimates close in magnitude to the corresponding fixed-effects estimates, although less precisely estimated. In reading, for example, a one point increase in peers’ average test scores leads to between a .14 and .39 point increase in own test score, with similar ranges across other subjects.

Keywords: Endogenous peer effects; school achievement; education; Australia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I21 I24 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 57pp
Date: 2013-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu and nep-ure
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iae:iaewps:wp2013n22

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