The Impact of Classroom Peers in a Streaming System

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

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.
Original languageEnglish
JournalEconomics of Education Review
Volume49
Issue numberdec.
Pages (from-to)110–128
Number of pages19
ISSN0272-7757
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2015

Cite this