Identification of peer effects with missing peer data: Evidence from Project STAR

Arbeitspapier

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.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 5432

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Analysis of Education ; Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
• Subject: peers ; missing data ; education ; Soziale Gruppe ; Bildungsniveau ; Schätzung ; USA

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Sojourner, Aaron J.
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
• (where): Bonn
• (when): 2011

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/46014
• URN: urn:nbn:de:101:1-201104113055
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET