Gender Peer Effects in University: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment

Hessel Oosterbeek and Reyn Van Ewijk

No 10-113/3, Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers from Tinbergen Institute

Abstract: This discussion paper resulted in an article in Economics of Education Review . Volume 38, pages 51-63.

Recent studies for primary and secondary education find positive effects of the share of girls in the classroom on achievement of boys and girls. This study examines whether these results can be extrapolated to post-secondary education. We conduct an experiment in which the shares of girls in workgroups for first year students in economics and business are manipulated and students are randomly assigned to these groups. Boys tend to postpone their dropout decision when surrounded by more girls, and there is also a modest reduction in early absenteeism. On the other hand, boys perform worse on courses with high math content when assigned to a group with many girls. Overall, however, we fail to find substantial gender peer effects on achievement. This in spite of the fact that students' perceptions of the behavior of themselves and their peers are influenced by the share of girls.

Keywords: Field experiment; Peer effects; University students (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D83 I22 I28 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010-11-11
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Gender peer effects in university: Evidence from a randomized experiment (2014)
Working Paper: Gender peer effects in university: Evidence from a randomized experiment (2010)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:tin:wpaper:20100113

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