IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp18416.html

Peer Effects in Classrooms: Evidence from Random Assignment

Author

Listed:
  • Xu, Lei

    (Loughborough University)

  • Zhu, Yu

    (University of Dundee)

Abstract

We apply a novel approach to estimate the effects of exposure to peers with different attributes by using the predetermined leave-own-out attributes of all classmates in randomly assigned classes. This strategy allows a behavioural interpretation of the peer effect over and above the pure mechanical channel. We find that being exposed to peer groups with attributes conducive to academic achievements, induced by random variations in the shares of classmates with college-educated parents, increases exam scores. We show that estimates based on the commonly used leave-own-out measures are highly sensitive to sample selection bias arising from non-random tracking in the sample. We show that estimates based on the commonly used leave-one-out measures are highly sensitive to non-random tracking in the sample.

Suggested Citation

  • Xu, Lei & Zhu, Yu, 2026. "Peer Effects in Classrooms: Evidence from Random Assignment," IZA Discussion Papers 18416, IZA Network @ LISER.
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18416
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp18416.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Yann Bramoullé & Habiba Djebbari & Bernard Fortin, 2020. "Peer Effects in Networks: A Survey," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 12(1), pages 603-629, August.
    2. Andrew J. Hill & Weina Zhou, 2023. "Peer Discrimination in the Classroom and Academic Achievement," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 58(4), pages 1178-1206.
    3. Zhang, Jianshun & Zhou, Yao, 2023. "The peer effect of migrant children on students’ non-cognitive outcomes: Evidence from China," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    4. Jochmans, Koen, 2023. "Peer effects and endogenous social interactions," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 235(2), pages 1203-1214.
    5. Bart H. H. Golsteyn & Arjan Non & Ulf Zölitz, 2021. "The Impact of Peer Personality on Academic Achievement," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 129(4), pages 1052-1099.
    6. Bobby W. Chung & Jian Zou, 2023. "Understanding spillover of peer parental education: Randomization evidence and mechanisms," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 61(3), pages 496-522, July.
    7. Wang, Haining & Cheng, Zhiming & Smyth, Russell, 2018. "Do migrant students affect local students’ academic achievements in urban China?," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 64-77.
    8. Li, Tao & Han, Li & Zhang, Linxiu & Rozelle, Scott, 2014. "Encouraging classroom peer interactions: Evidence from Chinese migrant schools," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 29-45.
    9. Robert Garlick, 2018. "Academic Peer Effects with Different Group Assignment Policies: Residential Tracking versus Random Assignment," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 10(3), pages 345-369, July.
    10. Bin Huang & Rong Zhu, 2020. "Peer effects of low-ability students in the classroom: evidence from China’s middle schools," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 33(4), pages 1343-1380, October.
    11. Angrist, Joshua D., 2014. "The perils of peer effects," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 98-108.
    12. Babcock, Philip & Bedard, Kelly & Fischer, Stefanie & Hartman, John, 2020. "Coordination and contagion: Individual connections and peer mechanisms in a randomized field experiment," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 185(C).
    13. Charles F. Manski, 1993. "Identification of Endogenous Social Effects: The Reflection Problem," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 60(3), pages 531-542.
    14. Jonathan Guryan & Kory Kroft & Matthew J. Notowidigdo, 2009. "Peer Effects in the Workplace: Evidence from Random Groupings in Professional Golf Tournaments," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 1(4), pages 34-68, October.
    15. Adam S. Booij & Edwin Leuven & Hessel Oosterbeek, 2017. "Ability Peer Effects in University: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 84(2), pages 547-578.
    16. Koen Jochmans, 2023. "Testing random assignment to peer groups," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 38(3), pages 321-333, April.
    17. Kang, Changhui, 2007. "Classroom peer effects and academic achievement: Quasi-randomization evidence from South Korea," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(3), pages 458-495, May.
    18. Jacob M. Markman & Eric A. Hanushek & John F. Kain & Steven G. Rivkin, 2003. "Does peer ability affect student achievement?," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 18(5), pages 527-544.
    19. Cai, Xiqian & Fan, Qingliang & Yuan, Congying, 2022. "The impact of only child peers on students’ cognitive and non-cognitive outcomes," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    20. 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.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. de Gendre, Alexandra & Salamanca, Nicolás, 2020. "On the Mechanisms of Ability Peer Effects," IZA Discussion Papers 13938, IZA Network @ LISER.
    2. Xu, Bin & Ma, Qingxuan & Yu, Qianbin, 2024. "Does the proportion of rural students affect the performance of urban students? ––Evidence from urban schools in China," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 105(C).
    3. Diemer, Andreas, 2022. "Endogenous peer effects in diverse friendship networks: Evidence from Swedish classrooms," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    4. Dinarte-Diaz, Lelys, 2025. "Understanding the effects of group composition by risk for violence. Experimental evidence from El Salvador," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    5. Feng, Shuaizhang & Kim, Jun Hyung & Yang, Zhe, 2021. "Effects of Childhood Peers on Personality Skills," IZA Discussion Papers 14952, IZA Network @ LISER.
    6. Robert W. Fairlie & Daniel M. Oliver & Glenn Millhauser & Randa Roland, 2024. "Estimating Peer Effects among College Students: Evidence from a Field Experiment of One-to-One Pairings in STEM," NBER Working Papers 33060, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Kuersteiner, Guido M. & Prucha, Ingmar R. & Zeng, Ying, 2023. "Efficient peer effects estimators with group effects," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 235(2), pages 2155-2194.
    8. Luo, Yiyang & Yang, Songtao, 2023. "Gender peer effects on students’ educational and occupational expectations," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    9. Essbaumer, Elisabeth, 2024. "Peer Effects and Social Mobility," Economics Working Paper Series 2401, University of St. Gallen, School of Economics and Political Science.
    10. Wennberg, Karl & Norgren, Axel, 2021. "Models of Peer Effects in Education," Working Papers 21/3, Stockholm School of Economics, Center for Educational Leadership and Excellence.
    11. Bin Huang & Rong Zhu, 2020. "Peer effects of low-ability students in the classroom: evidence from China’s middle schools," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 33(4), pages 1343-1380, October.
    12. Dong, Xiaoqi & Liang, Yinhe & Yu, Shuang, 2023. "Middle-achieving students are also my peers: The impact of peer effort on academic performance," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    13. Coveney, Max & Oosterveen, Matthijs, 2021. "What drives ability peer effects?," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).
    14. Weina Zhou & Andrew J. Hill, 2023. "The spillover effects of parental verbal conflict on classmates' cognitive and noncognitive outcomes," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 61(2), pages 342-363, April.
    15. 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.
    16. Raphael Brade, 2024. "Short-Term Events, Long-Term Friends? Freshman Orientation Peers and Academic Performance," CESifo Working Paper Series 11046, CESifo.
    17. Zhou, Weina & Wang, Shun, 2023. "Early childhood health shocks, classroom environment, and social-emotional outcomes," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    18. Zhang, Hongliang, 2016. "The role of testing noise in the estimation of achievement-based peer effects," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 113-123.
    19. Ingo E. Isphording & Ulf Zölitz, 2020. "The value of a peer," ECON - Working Papers 342, Department of Economics - University of Zurich.
    20. 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

    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • I20 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - General
    • I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:iza:izadps:dp18416. 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: Mark Fallak (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaalu.html .

    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.