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Peer Effects In Education: When Beliefs Matter, Luca Facchinello
Peer Effects In Education: When Beliefs Matter, Luca Facchinello
Research Collection School of Economics
Recent literature explains the puzzling finding of zero or negative peer effects in aca- demic achievement assuming that better peers negatively affect beliefs about ability (self-concept), motivation or peer interactions. This paper provides new evidence on such negative mechanisms, and on their impact on educational choices and attainment for students randomly assigned in compulsory school to classes with different cognitive ability. Using detailed longitudinal data on a nationally representative sample of Swedish compulsory school students, I find that students exposed to higher ability peers systematically underestimate their ability and are less likely to choose advanced subjects throughout compulsory school. While …
Rethinking Education Choices: The Effect Of Surveys, Luca Facchinello, Juanna Schroter Joensen, Gregory Francisco Veramindi
Rethinking Education Choices: The Effect Of Surveys, Luca Facchinello, Juanna Schroter Joensen, Gregory Francisco Veramindi
Research Collection School of Economics
Can surveys affect human capital investments? This paper examines whether individual education choices and outcomes are affected by a survey posing questions related to expectations and forward-looking behavior. We have administrative data for the whole Swedish population to which an extensive education survey was administered to randomly drawn samples of 3rd graders. This constitutes a randomized social experiment for testing whether responding to survey questions alters behavior. We observe complete educational and labor market histories until the individuals are 31-41 years old. We have exogenous variation in the timing of first surveys and when an additional survey was administered to …