Open AccessIdentifying peer achievement spillovers: Implications for desegregation and the achievement gap
Author(s) -
Fruehwirth Jane Cooley
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
quantitative economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.062
H-Index - 27
eISSN - 1759-7331
pISSN - 1759-7323
DOI - 10.3982/qe93
Subject(s) - desegregation , peer effects , context (archaeology) , academic achievement , student achievement , distribution (mathematics) , psychology , economics , mathematics education , social psychology , political science , geography , mathematics , mathematical analysis , archaeology , public administration
This paper develops a new approach to identifying peer achievement spillovers in the context of an equilibrium model of student effort choices. By focusing on the effect of contemporaneous peer achievement, this framework integrates previously unexplored types of heterogeneity in peer spillovers in the achievement production context. Applying the strategy to North Carolina public elementary school students, I find peer achievement spillovers exist primarily within race‐based reference groups, and the magnitude of these spillovers diminishes across the percentiles of the achievement distribution. Simulations highlight the importance of peer achievement spillovers for determining the distributional effects of desegregation relative to flexible reduced‐form specifications that focus entirely on predetermined peer characteristics.