Thomas Fischer
Associate professor
Classroom or pub - Where are persistent peer relationships between university students formed?
Author
Summary, in English
This paper discusses the formation of peers in an anonymous higher education setting using a unique data set of industrial engineering students. For identification, we exploit the random assignment of students into groups and student performance before students met. We compare two different settings for potential peer formation: a voluntary freshman orientation week organized by the students’ union and a mandatory group work course. It is only in the case of the group work course that we report persistent impacts on subsequent academic achievement. In line with our theoretical reasoning, peer effects exist between groups of two students who were already similar before.
Department/s
- Department of Economics
- Centre for Economic Demography
Publishing year
2020
Language
English
Pages
474-493
Publication/Series
Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization
Volume
178
Document type
Journal article
Publisher
Elsevier
Topic
- Sociology (excluding Social Work, Social Psychology and Social Anthropology)
Keywords
- Higher education
- Homophily
- Peer effects
- Social network formation
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 0167-2681