Does Gender Matter? The Effect of High Performing Peers on Academic Performances

Francesca Modena, Enrico Rettore and Giulia Tanzi ()
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Giulia Tanzi: Bank of Italy

No 14806, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: This paper exploits student-level administrative data on the population of Italian university students from 2006 to 2014 to analyze the effects of high performing (HP) male or female peers on individual academic performance, according to the gender of the student. The identification strategy is based on quasi-random variation in the exposure to HP peers across cohorts, within the same university and the same degree program. The impact of HP students, proxied by their high school final grade, is heterogeneous. We found that female HP peers have stronger positive effects than HP males, in particular with peers of the same gender. Moreover, there is evidence that the exposure to HP males can be even negative, especially for female students in competitive environments, such as the STEM fields, and for low ability students of both genders.

Keywords: peers; human capital; higher education; university performance; gender (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C21 C35 I22 I23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 31 pages
Date: 2021-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu, nep-eur, nep-gen and nep-ure
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published - published as 'Asymmetries in the gender effect of high-performing peers: Evidence from tertiary education' in: Labour Economics , 2022, 78, 102225

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Working Paper: Does gender matter? The effect of high performing peers on academic performances (2021)
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