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Jan Bietenbeck . Photo

Jan Bietenbeck

Senior lecturer

Jan Bietenbeck . Photo

Do Motivated Classmates Matter for Educational Success?

Author

  • Jan Bietenbeck

Summary, in English

I provide evidence of social spillovers of personality by showing that being in class with motivated peers affects educational success. I first document that academic motivation, a key aspect of personality in the context of education, predicts own achievement, classroom behavior, high school GPA, and college-test taking among elementary school students. Exploiting random assignment of students to classes, I then show that exposure to motivated classmates causally affects achievement, an effect that operates over and above spillovers of classmates’ past achievement and socio-demographic composition. However, peer motivation in elementary school does not affect own motivation and long-term educational success.

Department/s

  • Department of Economics
  • Centre for Economic Demography

Publishing year

2024-06-27

Language

English

Pages

36-58

Publication/Series

Economic Journal

Volume

135

Issue

665

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Wiley-Blackwell

Topic

  • Economics

Keywords

  • I21
  • J13
  • J24

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1468-0297