Journal of Labor Economics Vol. 27 No. 3 2009

Does Your Cohort Matter? Measuring Peer Effects in College Achievement

Scott E. Carrell^1,2; Richard L. Fullerton³; James E. West³

¹ National Bureau of Economic Research · ² University of California, Davis · ³ United States Air Force Academy

Abstract

We estimate peer effects in college achievement using a data set in which individuals are exogenously assigned to peer groups of about 30 students with whom they are required to spend the majority of their time interacting. This feature enables us to estimate peer effects that are more comparable to changing the entire cohort of peers. Using this broad peer group, we measure academic peer effects of much larger magnitude than found in previous studies. The effects persist at a diminished rate into follow-on years, and we find evidence of nonlinearities in the magnitude of the effects across student academic ability.

DOI

10.1086/600143

Volume

27

Issue

3

Pages

439-464

Language

en

Sources

crossref openalex

Cite

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