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Journal of Political Economy Vol. 129 No. 4 2021

The Impact of Peer Personality on Academic Achievement

Bart Golsteyn1; Arjan Non2; Ulf Zölitz3

1 Maastricht University · 2 Erasmus University Rotterdam · 3 University of Zurich

open access

Abstract

This paper provides evidence of a novel facet of peer effects by showing that peer personality influences academic achievement.We exploit random assignment of students to university sections and find that students perform better in the presence of persistent peers. The impact of peer persistence is enduring, as students exposed to persistent peers at the beginning of their studies continue to achieve higher grades in subsequent periods. The personality peer effects that we document are distinct from other observable peer characteristics and suggest that peer personality traits affect human capital accumulation.

DOI
10.1086/712638
Volume
129
Issue
4
Pages
1052-1099
Language
en
Sources
crossref bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex

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