How Home Exams and Peers Affect College Grades in Unprecedented Times

Tinna Laufey Ásgeirsdottir, Marco Francesconi (), Ásthildur M. Johannsdottir and Gylfi Zoega
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Tinna Laufey Ásgeirsdottir: University of Iceland
Marco Francesconi: University of Essex
Ásthildur M. Johannsdottir: University of Iceland

No 18344, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Leveraging administrative data from the University of Iceland, which cover more than 60% of the undergraduate population in the country, we examine how home exams and peer networks shape grades around the COVID-19 crisis. Using difference-in-difference models with a rich set of fixed effects, we find that home exams taken during university closures raised grades by about 0.5 points (about 7%) relative to invigilated in-person exams outside the pandemic period. Access to a larger share of high-school peers leads to an average grade increase of up to two-fifths of a point, and exposure to higher-quality peers yielded additional, but smaller gains. Interactions between peer-network measures and the COVID/home-exam indicators are near zero, providing no evidence that peer networks amplified home-exam gains during the pandemic.

Keywords: networks; COVID-19; online education; academic performance; academic dishonesty; Iceland (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D85 I21 I23 J16 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-12
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Working Paper: How Home Exams and Peers Affect College Grades in Unprecedented Times (2025)
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