IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ebl/ecbull/eb-14-00808.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Exploiting Regression-Discontinuity Design to Estimate Peer Effects in College – The Case of Class Attendance

Author

Listed:
  • Qihui Chen

    (China Agricultural University)

  • Tade Okediji

    (University of Minnesota)

  • Tian Guoqiang

    (China Agricultural University)

Abstract

We exploit a regression-discontinuity design to estimate peer effects on college students' attendance, using data from a classroom experiment, which required students who scored below a cut-off on the first midterm exam to attend subsequent classes. Since within a small interval around the cut-off, which side of the cut-off a student falls is randomly determined, so is the proportion of a student's classmates falling on one side of the cut-off in the same interval. Using this proportion to instrument peer attendance, we find that a one-point (out of ten) increase in classmates' average attendance score raises a student's attendance score by 0.7 points.

Suggested Citation

  • Qihui Chen & Tade Okediji & Tian Guoqiang, 2015. "Exploiting Regression-Discontinuity Design to Estimate Peer Effects in College – The Case of Class Attendance," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 35(3), pages 1563-1571.
    • Handle: RePEc:ebl:ecbull:eb-14-00808
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.accessecon.com/Pubs/EB/2015/Volume35/EB-15-V35-I3-P157.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Qihui Chen & Guoqiang Tian & Tade O. Okediji, 2014. "Quasi-Experimental Evidence of Peer Effects in First-Year Economics Courses at a Chinese University," The Journal of Economic Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(4), pages 304-319, December.
    2. Stinebrickner, Ralph & Stinebrickner, Todd R., 2006. "What can be learned about peer effects using college roommates? Evidence from new survey data and students from disadvantaged backgrounds," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(8-9), pages 1435-1454, September.
    3. Hahn, Jinyong & Todd, Petra & Van der Klaauw, Wilbert, 2001. "Identification and Estimation of Treatment Effects with a Regression-Discontinuity Design," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 69(1), pages 201-209, January.
    4. David S. Lee & Thomas Lemieux, 2010. "Regression Discontinuity Designs in Economics," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 48(2), pages 281-355, June.
    5. McCrary, Justin, 2008. "Manipulation of the running variable in the regression discontinuity design: A density test," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 142(2), pages 698-714, February.
    6. Bruce Sacerdote, 2001. "Peer Effects with Random Assignment: Results for Dartmouth Roommates," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 116(2), pages 681-704.
    7. Qihui Chen & Tade O. Okediji, 2014. "Incentive Matters!-The Benefit of Reminding Students About Their Academic Standing in Introductory Economics Courses," The Journal of Economic Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(1), pages 11-24, March.
    8. David J. Zimmerman, 2003. "Peer Effects in Academic Outcomes: Evidence from a Natural Experiment," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 85(1), pages 9-23, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. de Souza, Laeticia R. & de Xavier Pinto, Cristine Campos & Queiroz, Bernardo L & de Oliveira e Silva, Dimitri, 2021. "Peer effects in college: how peers' performance can influence students' academic outcomes," SocArXiv 7n6ks, Center for Open Science.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Vardardottir, Arna, 2013. "Peer effects and academic achievement: a regression discontinuity approach," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 108-121.
    2. Jacobus de Hoop, 2010. "Selective Secondary Education and School Participation in Sub-Saharan Africa: Evidence from Malawi," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 10-041/2, Tinbergen Institute.
    3. Nicolás de Roux & Evan Riehl, 2019. "Isolating Peer Effects in the Returns to College Selectivity," Documentos CEDE 17413, Universidad de los Andes, Facultad de Economía, CEDE.
    4. Gordon B. Dahl & Katrine V. L?ken & Magne Mogstad, 2014. "Peer Effects in Program Participation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(7), pages 2049-2074, July.
    5. Emmanuel José Vázquez, 2022. "La escolarización y las ganancias de aprendizaje según el nivel de integración socioeconómica de los estudiantes," Asociación Argentina de Economía Política: Working Papers 4606, Asociación Argentina de Economía Política.
    6. Sequeira, Sandra & Spinnewijn, Johannes & Xu, Guo, 2016. "Rewarding schooling success and perceived returns to education: Evidence from India," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 131(PA), pages 373-392.
    7. Baum-Snow, Nathaniel & Ferreira, Fernando, 2015. "Causal Inference in Urban and Regional Economics," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: Gilles Duranton & J. V. Henderson & William C. Strange (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 3-68, Elsevier.
    8. Ribas, Rafael P. & Sampaio, Breno & Trevisan, Giuseppe, 2020. "Short- and long-term effects of class assignment: Evidence from a flagship university in Brazil," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    9. de Souza, Laeticia R. & de Xavier Pinto, Cristine Campos & Queiroz, Bernardo L & de Oliveira e Silva, Dimitri, 2021. "Peer effects in college: how peers' performance can influence students' academic outcomes," SocArXiv 7n6ks, Center for Open Science.
    10. Ivan A Canay & Vishal Kamat, 2018. "Approximate Permutation Tests and Induced Order Statistics in the Regression Discontinuity Design," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 85(3), pages 1577-1608.
    11. Arteaga, Irma & Heflin, Colleen & Gable, Sara, 2016. "The impact of aging out of WIC on food security in households with children," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 82-96.
    12. Frederik von Waldow & Heike Link, 2024. "Spatial Competition and Pass-through of Fuel Taxes: Evidence from a Quasi-natural Experiment in Germany," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 2086, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    13. Yakusheva, Olga & Kapinos, Kandice & Weiss, Marianne, 2011. "Peer effects and the Freshman 15: Evidence from a natural experiment," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 9(2), pages 119-132, March.
    14. Yu, Han, 2020. "Am I the big fish? The effect of ordinal rank on student academic performance in middle school," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 176(C), pages 18-41.
    15. Martin Nordin & Gawain Heckley & Ulf‐G. Gerdtham, 2020. "Impact Of A Tertiary Eligibility Threshold On Tertiary Education And Earnings: A Discontinuity Approach," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 58(1), pages 401-424, January.
    16. Volker Schöer & Debra Shepherd, 2013. "Compulsory tutorial programmes and performance in undergraduate microeconomics: A regression discontinuity design," Working Papers 27/2013, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics.
    17. Matteo Picchio & Stefano Staffolani, 2019. "Does apprenticeship improve job opportunities? A regression discontinuity approach," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 56(1), pages 23-60, January.
    18. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/37ufknmfv39tppkbjb4dmidnqe is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Seth D. Zimmerman, 2019. "Elite Colleges and Upward Mobility to Top Jobs and Top Incomes," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(1), pages 1-47, January.
    20. Julio Cáceres-Delpiano & Eugenio Giolito, 2023. "Minimum age requirements and the role of the school choice set," SERIEs: Journal of the Spanish Economic Association, Springer;Spanish Economic Association, vol. 14(1), pages 63-103, March.
    21. Silvia Mendolia & Alfredo R Paloyo & Ian Walker, 2018. "Heterogeneous effects of high school peers on educational outcomes," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 70(3), pages 613-634.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Peer Effects; Regression-discontinuity;

    JEL classification:

    • A2 - General Economics and Teaching - - Economic Education and Teaching of Economics
    • C1 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ebl:ecbull:eb-14-00808. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: John P. Conley (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.