The browser you are using is not supported by this website. All versions of Internet Explorer are no longer supported, either by us or Microsoft (read more here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/windows/end-of-ie-support).

Please use a modern browser to fully experience our website, such as the newest versions of Edge, Chrome, Firefox or Safari etc.

Jan Bietenbeck . Photo

Jan Bietenbeck

Senior lecturer

Jan Bietenbeck . Photo

Own Motivation, Peer Motivation, and Educational Success

Author

  • Jan Bietenbeck

Summary, in English

I study how motivation shapes own and peers’ educational success. Using data from Project STAR, I find that academic motivation in early elementary school, as measured by a standardized psychological test, predicts contemporaneous and future test scores, high school GPA, and college-test taking over and above cognitive skills. Exploiting random assignment of students to classes, I find that exposure to motivated classmates causally affects contemporaneous reading achievement, a peer effect that operates over and above spillovers from classmates’ past achievement and socio-demographic composition. However, peer motivation does not affect longer-term educational success, likely because it does not change own motivation.

Department/s

  • Department of Economics

Publishing year

2020-11

Language

English

Pages

1-53

Publication/Series

DISCUSSION PAPER SERIES

Issue

13872

Document type

Working paper

Topic

  • Economics

Keywords

  • I21
  • J13
  • J24
  • motivation
  • personality
  • peer effects
  • Project STAR

Status

Published