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Thomas Fischer

Associate professor

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Classroom or pub - Where are persistent peer relationships between university students formed?

Author

  • Thomas Fischer
  • Johannes Rode

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