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The impact of classroom peers in a streaming system

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  • Vardardottir, Arna

Abstract

This paper investigates educational production with a focus on the influence that socio-economic status of class peers has on academic outcomes of students in a streaming system. Employing the Swiss subsample of the PISA data, I provide evidence that while classroom assignment is not random within schools or tracks it is random within tracks-by-schools. Track-by-school fixed effects therefore render peer group composition conditionally uncorrelated with students’ characteristics, while track fixed effects and school fixed effects don’t. Estimates based on track fixed-effects and school fixed-effects approaches are reduced sizably by employing a track-by-school fixed-effects approach while mean effects on test results in mathematics and problem solving remain significant.

Suggested Citation

  • Vardardottir, Arna, 2015. "The impact of classroom peers in a streaming system," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 110-128.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecoedu:v:49:y:2015:i:c:p:110-128
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econedurev.2015.09.002
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    Cited by:

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    3. Wang Tianheng, 2021. "Classroom Composition and Student Academic Achievement: The Impact of Peers’ Parental Education," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 21(1), pages 273-305, January.
    4. John Jerrim & Luis Alejandro Lopez‐Agudo & Oscar David Marcenaro‐Gutierrez, 2021. "Posh but Poor: The Association Between Relative Socio‐Economic Status and Children’s Academic Performance," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 67(2), pages 334-362, June.
    5. José M. Cordero & Víctor Cristóbal & Daniel Santín, 2018. "Causal Inference On Education Policies: A Survey Of Empirical Studies Using Pisa, Timss And Pirls," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(3), pages 878-915, July.
    6. Daniel Goller & Andrea Diem & Stefan C. Wolter, 2022. "Sitting next to a dropout: Study success of students with peers that came to the lecture hall by a different route," Economics of Education Working Paper Series 0190, University of Zurich, Department of Business Administration (IBW).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Education; Peer effects; Ability streaming;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality
    • I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy

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