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Do Motivated Classmates Matter for Educational Success?

Bietenbeck, Jan LU (2024) In Economic Journal 135(665). p.36-58
Abstract
I provide evidence of social spillovers of personality by showing that being in class with motivated peers affects educational success. I first document that academic motivation, a key aspect of personality in the context of education, predicts own achievement, classroom behavior, high school GPA, and college-test taking among elementary school students. Exploiting random assignment of students to classes, I then show that exposure to motivated classmates causally affects achievement, an effect that operates over and above spillovers of classmates’ past achievement and socio-demographic composition. However, peer motivation in elementary school does not affect own motivation and long-term educational success.
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author
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
I21, J13, J24
in
Economic Journal
volume
135
issue
665
pages
36 - 58
publisher
Wiley-Blackwell
ISSN
1468-0297
DOI
10.1093/ej/ueae060
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
e97433a1-00f9-4300-a0a5-80c7060418bc
date added to LUP
2024-08-29 07:31:11
date last changed
2025-05-23 17:28:28
@article{e97433a1-00f9-4300-a0a5-80c7060418bc,
  abstract     = {{I provide evidence of social spillovers of personality by showing that being in class with motivated peers affects educational success. I first document that academic motivation, a key aspect of personality in the context of education, predicts own achievement, classroom behavior, high school GPA, and college-test taking among elementary school students. Exploiting random assignment of students to classes, I then show that exposure to motivated classmates causally affects achievement, an effect that operates over and above spillovers of classmates’ past achievement and socio-demographic composition. However, peer motivation in elementary school does not affect own motivation and long-term educational success.}},
  author       = {{Bietenbeck, Jan}},
  issn         = {{1468-0297}},
  keywords     = {{I21; J13; J24}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{06}},
  number       = {{665}},
  pages        = {{36--58}},
  publisher    = {{Wiley-Blackwell}},
  series       = {{Economic Journal}},
  title        = {{Do Motivated Classmates Matter for Educational Success?}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ej/ueae060}},
  doi          = {{10.1093/ej/ueae060}},
  volume       = {{135}},
  year         = {{2024}},
}