Academic Peer Effects with Different Group Assignment Policies: Residential Tracking versus Random Assignment

A-Tier
Journal: American Economic Journal: Applied Economics
Year: 2018
Volume: 10
Issue: 3
Pages: 345-69

Score contribution per author:

4.022 = (α=2.01 / 1 authors) × 2.0x A-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

I study the relative academic performance of students tracked or randomly assigned to South African university dormitories. Tracking reduces low-scoring students' GPAs and has little effect on high-scoring students, leading to lower and more dispersed GPAs. I also directly estimate peer effects using random variation in peer groups across dormitories. Living with higher-scoring peers raises students' GPAs, particularly for low-scoring students, and peer effects are stronger between socially proximate students. This shows that much of the treatment effect of tracking is attributable to peer effects. These results present a cautionary note about sorting students into academically homogeneous classrooms or neighborhoods.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:aea:aejapp:v:10:y:2018:i:3:p:345-69
Journal Field
General
Author Count
1
Added to Database
2026-01-25