Petra Thiemann
Associate senior lecturer
The Persistent Effects of Short-Term Peer Groups in Higher Education
Author
Summary, in English
This paper studies the persistent effects of short-term peer exposure in a college setting. I exploit the random assignment of undergraduates to peer groups during a mandatory orientation week and follow the students until graduation. High levels of peer ability in a group harm the students’ test scores and lead to increases in the probability of early dropout; this result is driven by the adverse effect of high-ability peers on low-ability students. I find suggestive evidence for discouragement effects: Peer ability is negatively correlated with the students’ confidence in their academic ability after the first week.
Department/s
- Department of Economics
Publishing year
2018
Language
English
Publication/Series
Working Papers
Issue
2018:32
Links
Document type
Working paper
Topic
- Economics
Keywords
- peer effect
- higher education
- natural experiment
- ability
- educational attainment
- dropout
- major choice
- I21
- I23
- J24
Status
Published