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Good peers or good teachers? Evidence from a French University

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  • Brodaty, Thibault
  • Gurgand, Marc

Abstract

Using a quasi-random allocation of students to classes in a French university, we are able to estimate peer effects and teacher effects, with a specific attention to non-linear peer effects. We find that teacher effects are strong, as found at other levels of the education system, but that peer effects have very limited impact. This implies that restricting student access to some universities is of no benefit to remaining students in terms of academic performance. In contrast, attention to teacher performance should be strong at the higher education level.

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  • Brodaty, Thibault & Gurgand, Marc, 2016. "Good peers or good teachers? Evidence from a French University," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 62-78.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecoedu:v:54:y:2016:i:c:p:62-78
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econedurev.2016.06.005
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    Cited by:

    1. Goller, Daniel & Diem, Andrea & Wolter, Stefan C., 2023. "Sitting next to a dropout: Academic success of students with more educated peers," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    2. Ulrike Unterhofer, 2022. "Peer Effects in Labor Market Training," Papers 2211.12366, arXiv.org, revised Jun 2023.
    3. Humlum, Maria Knoth & Thorsager, Mette, 2021. "The Importance of Peer Quality for Completion of Higher Education," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    4. Martin Fischer & Ulf-G Gerdtham & Gawain Heckley & Martin Karlsson & Gustav Kjellsson & Therese Nilsson, 2021. "Education and health: long-run effects of peers, tracking and years," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 36(105), pages 3-49.
    5. Lépine, Andrea & Estevan, Fernanda, 2021. "Do ability peer effects matter for academic and labor market outcomes?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    6. Tian, Zhilei & Wei, Yi & Li, Fang, 2019. "Who are better teachers? The effects of tenure-track and part-time faculty on student achievement," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 140-151.
    7. 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

    Higher education; Peer effects; Teacher effects; Random assignement;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • I23 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Higher Education; Research Institutions
    • I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy

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