Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/282211 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2022
Series/Report no.: 
KRTK-KTI Working Papers No. KRTK-KTI WP - 2022/18
Publisher: 
Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Economics, Centre for Economic and Regional Studies, Budapest
Abstract: 
This paper investigates direct peer influence in upper-secondary track choice in the stratified and selective Hungarian educational system and makes two contributions to the literature. First, it tests both peer-contrasting and peer-conforming influences by considering peers' GPA and endogenous educational choices. Second, the paper investigates mechanisms behind peerconforming educational choices (such as peers' normative pressure and information potential), with a focus on two structurally different peer relationships: self-selected friends and randomly assigned deskmates. The study uses a unique dataset that merges administrative data with randomized field experiment data. The results show no evidence of peer influence, after accounting for unobserved classroom homogeneity. Within the classroom, peers' ability did not decrease, and peers' ambitious endogenous educational choices did not increase students' own choice of the academic upper-secondary track. Concerning the mechanisms of peerconforming educational choices, the results reveal that peers' informational potential (but not their normative pressure) might be the mechanism that drives students to conform to peers' choices. This paper interprets the absence of peer influence in upper-secondary track choices as evidence that peer influence cannot derail students' socially determined educational choices.
Subjects: 
upper-secondary track choice
peer influence
application behavior
social contrast and conformity
deskmates
educational choice
JEL: 
C93
I21
I34
Z13
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size
491.16 kB





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.