Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/46014 
Year of Publication: 
2011
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 5432
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
This paper studies peer effects on student achievement among first graders randomly assigned to classrooms in Tennessee's Project STAR. The analysis uses previously unexploited pre-assignment achievement measures available for 60 percent of students. Data are not missing at random, making identification challenging. The paper develops new ways, given random assignment of individuals to classes, to identify peer effects without imposing other missing-data assumptions. Estimates suggest positive effects of mean peer lagged achievement on average. Allowing heterogeneous effects, evidence suggests lower-achieving students benefit more than higher-achieving students do from increases in peer mean. Further, the bias in a widely used, poorly understood peer-effects estimator is analyzed, implying that caution is warranted in interpreting many peer-effects estimates extant in the literature.
Subjects: 
peers
missing data
education
JEL: 
C2
I21
J13
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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