Peer Effects: Evidence from Secondary School Transition in England

Stephen Gibbons and Shqiponja Telhaj

No 6455, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We study the effects of peers on school achievement, with detailed data on children making the same primary to secondary school transition in consecutive years in England. Our estimates show that secondary school composition, on entry at age 12, affects achievement at age 14, although the effect sizes are small. These secondary school peer effects originate in peer characteristics encapsulated in family background and early achievements (age 7), rather than subsequent test score gains in primary school. Our specifications control for individual unobservables and school fixed effects and trends, rendering peer group composition conditionally uncorrelated with student's characteristics.

Keywords: schools; peer effects; education (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I2 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 41 pages
Date: 2012-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu, nep-lab, nep-ltv and nep-ure
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Published - published in: Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, 2016, 78 (4), 548-575

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Journal Article: Peer Effects: Evidence from Secondary School Transition in England (2016)
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