Do peers influence achievement in high school economics? Evidence from Georgia's economics end of course test

Authors

Christopher Clark, Georgia College & State University
Benjamin Scafidi, Georgia College & State University
John R. Swinton, Georgia College & State University

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-2011

Publication Title

Journal of Economic Education

Abstract

The authors provide the first estimates of the impact of peers on achievement in high school economics. The estimates are obtained by analyzing three years of data on all high school students who take Georgia's required economics course and its accompanying high-stakes End of Course Test (Georgia Department of Education). They use an instrumental variables approach with teacher-level fixed effects to control for selection bias, simultaneity, measurement error in the measure of peer quality, and nonrandom assignment of teachers to students. The authors find that an increase of one standard deviation in the prior academic achievement of peers increases achievement in economics by 0.03 standard deviation. © Copyright Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Volume Number

42

Issue Number

1

First Page

3

Comments

© Copyright Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Last Page

18

Recommended Citation

Clark, C., Scafidi, B. P. & Swinton, J. R. (2011). Do peers influence achievement in high school economics? Evidence from Georgia's economics end of course test. Journal of Economic Education, 42(1): 3-18.