scholarly journals Academic Peer Effects with Different Group Assignment Policies: Residential Tracking versus Random Assignment

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Garlick
Keyword(s):  
Peer Effects ◽  
Random Assignment ◽  
Group Assignment

scholarly journals Academic Peer Effects with Different Group Assignment Policies: Residential Tracking versus Random Assignment

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 345-369 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Garlick
Keyword(s):  
Academic Performance ◽  
South African ◽  
Treatment Effect ◽  
Peer Effects ◽  
Peer Groups ◽  
Random Assignment ◽  
Cautionary Note ◽  
Group Assignment ◽  
Random Variation

I study the relative academic performance of students tracked or randomly assigned to South African university dormitories. Tracking reduces low-scoring students' GPAs and has little effect on high-scoring students, leading to lower and more dispersed GPAs. I also directly estimate peer effects using random variation in peer groups across dormitories. Living with higher-scoring peers raises students' GPAs, particularly for low-scoring students, and peer effects are stronger between socially proximate students. This shows that much of the treatment effect of tracking is attributable to peer effects. These results present a cautionary note about sorting students into academically homogeneous classrooms or neighborhoods. (JEL I23, I24, I28, O15, Z13)

Gender Peer Effects in a Predominantly Male Environment: Evidence from West Point

2018 ◽  
Vol 108 ◽  
pp. 392-395 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nick Huntington-Klein ◽  
Elaina Rose
Keyword(s):  
Peer Effects ◽  
Peer Group ◽  
West Point ◽  
Military Academy ◽  
Group Assignment

There is considerable interest in the success of women in overwhelmingly male environments. One hypothesized determinant of success is the increased presence of other women. However, the theoretical direction of this effect is uncertain. Previous studies of heavily male contexts have had mixed results. We take advantage of random peer group assignment at West Point military academy to identify gender peer effects in the first years in which women were admitted. We find that women do significantly better when placed in companies with more women peers. The addition of one woman peer reduces the gender progression gap by half.

Self-Selection of Peers and Performance

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lukas Kiessling ◽  
Jonas Radbruch ◽  
Sebastian Schaube
Keyword(s):  
Standard Deviation ◽  
Field Experiment ◽  
Peer Effects ◽  
Individual Performance ◽  
Random Assignment ◽  
Self Selection ◽  
Multiple Characteristics ◽  
Framed Field Experiment ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Selection Of

This paper studies how the presence of peers and different peer assignment rules—self-selection versus random assignment—affect individual performance. Using a framed field experiment, we find that the presence of a randomly assigned peer improves performance by 28% of a standard deviation (SD), whereas self-selecting peers induces an additional 15%–18% SD improvement in performance. Our results document peer effects in multiple characteristics and show that self-selection changes these characteristics. However, a decomposition reveals that variations in the peer composition contribute only little to the performance differences across peer assignment rules. Rather, we find that self-selection has a direct effect on performance. This paper was accepted by Yan Chen, decision analysis.

scholarly journals Do Peers Affect Undergraduates’ Decisions to Switch Majors?

2021 ◽  
pp. 0013189X2110235
Author(s):  
Shi Pu ◽  
Yu Yan ◽  
Liang Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Peer Effects ◽  
Social Group ◽  
Strong Nonlinearity ◽  
Group Level ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Group Assignment ◽  
The Social ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Job Prospects

In this study, dormitory room and social group assignment data from a college are used to investigate peer effects on college students’ decisions to switch majors. Results reveal strong evidence of such peer effects at both the room and the social group level. Most notably, at the room level, the dense concentration of same-major roommates deters students from switching majors; having one or two same-major roommates has no significant effect on major switching, indicating strong nonlinearity of peer effects at the room level. Such nonlinearity is not observed among social group members. Results also reveal evidence that students’ choices of new majors are affected by peers’ majors. Peers are more likely to choose the same destination majors than nonpeers. In choosing their new majors, students do not necessarily follow their peers indiscriminately. Their decisions seem to be influenced more by short-term academic requirements than by long-term job prospects. Finally, peer effects on major switching and major choices are stronger at the dormitory room level than at the social group level in most cases.

Predicting Optimal Training Group Assignment

1979 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 295-299
Author(s):  
Beverly H. Williges ◽  
Robert C. Williges ◽  
Ricky E. Savage
Keyword(s):  
Multiple Regression ◽  
Training Group ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Regression Equations ◽  
Random Assignment ◽  
Training Time ◽  
Additional Training ◽  
Training Conditions ◽  
Group Assignment ◽  
Complex Training

Multiple regression equations were used to assign 40 students to fixed-difficulty or adaptive training based upon the shorter predicted time-to-train score. In addition, 40 students were randomly assigned to the two training conditions, and 40 students were mismatched to training based upon the longer predicted time to train. Using predicted scores to match students to training alternatives resulted in a 47% savings in training time over random assignment and a 53% savings over mismatched assignment. The assignment effect was reliable at the 0.0001 level. Future research will examine different categories of predictors, additional training alternatives, and more complex training tasks.

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