Studies of how characteristics of the family of origin are associated with educational and labor market outcomes indicate the degree of openness of societies and have a long tradition in sociology. We review research published since 1990 into educational stratification and social (occupational or class) mobility, focusing on the importance of parental socioeconomic circumstances, and with particular emphasis on comparative studies. Large-scale data now available from many countries and several time points have led to more and better descriptions of inequality of opportunity across countries and over time. However, partly owing to problems of comparability of measurement, unambiguous conclusions about trends and ranking of countries have proven elusive. In addition, no strong evidence exists that explains intercountry differences. We conclude that the 1990s witnessed a resurgence of microlevel models, mostly of a rational choice type, that signals an increased interest in moving beyond description in strat...

Inequality of opportunity in comparative perspective : Recent research on educational attainment and social mobility

One important goal of this study is to develop a methodology of inference for a widely used Cliff-Ord type spatial model containing spatial lags in the dependent variable, exogenous variables, and the disturbance terms, while allowing for unknown heteroskedasticity in the innovations. We first generalize the generalized moments (GM) estimator suggested in Kelejian and Prucha (1998,1999) for the spatial autoregressive parameter in the disturbance process. We prove the consistency of our estimator; unlike in our earlier paper we also determine its asymptotic distribution, and discuss issues of efficiency. We then define instrumental variable (IV) estimators for the regression parameters of the model and give results concerning the joint asymptotic distribution of those estimators and the GM estimator under reasonable conditions. Much of the theory is kept general to cover a wide range of settings. We note the estimation theory developed by Kelejian and Prucha (1998, 1999) for GM and IV estimators and by Lee (2004) for the quasi-maximum likelihood estimator under the assumption of homoskedastic innovations does not carry over to the case of heteroskedastic innovations. The paper also provides a critical discussion of the usual specification of the parameter space.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/SSRN_ID1296549_code459177.pdf?abstractid=1296549&mirid=3

Specification and Estimation of Spatial Autoregressive Models with Autoregressive and Heteroskedastic Disturbances

We study peer effects in the workplace. Specifically, we investigate whether, how, and why the productivity of a worker depends on the productivity of coworkers in the same team. Using high-frequency data on worker productivity from a large supermarket chain, we find strong evidence of positive productiv ity spillovers from the introduction of highly productive personnel into a shift. Worker effort is positively related to the productivity of workers who see him, but not workers who do not see him. Additionally, workers respond more to the presence of coworkers with whom they frequently interact. We conclude that social pressure can partially internalize free-riding externalities that are built into many workplaces. (JEL J24, L81, M54)

https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/33749/1/530032856.pdf

Peers at Work

Identification of peer effects through social networks.

This chapter summarizes the recent literature on peer effects in student outcomes at the elementary, secondary, and post-secondary levels. Linear-in-means models find modest sized and statistically significant peer effects in test scores. But the linear-in-means model masks considerable heterogeneity in the effects experienced by different types of students. Using nonlinear models, one prevalent finding is larger peer effects in which high ability students benefit from the presence of other high ability students. Studies that stratify students by race and ability often find that students are affected both by the racial composition of their peers and by the achievement of their same-race peers. At the university level, several studies find modest sized effects from dormmate and roommate background on own academic performance. For both university and high school students, the measured peer effects on “social” outcomes such as drinking are larger than the effects on academic outcomes. Many authors find substantial peer effects in drinking, drug use, and criminal behavior. This chapter suggest areas for future investigation and data collection.

Peer Effects in Education: How Might They Work, How Big Are They and How Much Do We Know Thus Far?

Empirical analysis of peer effects on student achievement has been open to question because of the difficulties of separating peer effects from other confounding influences. While most econometric attention has been directed at issues of simultaneous determination of peer interactions, we argue that issues of omitted and mismeasured variables are likely to be more important. We control for the most important determinants of achievement that will confound peer estimates by removing student and school-by-grade fixed effects in addition to observable family and school characteristics. The analysis also addresses the reciprocal nature of peer interactions and the interpretation of estimates based upon models using past achievement as the measure of peer group quality. The results indicate that peer achievement has a positive effect on achievement growth. Moreover, students throughout the school test score distribution appear to benefit from higher achieving schoolmates. On the other hand, the variance in achievement appears to have no systematic effect. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Does Peer Ability Affect Student Achievement

Empirical analysis of peer effects on student achievement has been open to question because of the difficulties of separating peer effects from other confounding influences While most econometric attention has been directed at issues of simultaneous determination of peer interactions, we argue that issues of omitted and mismeasured variables are likely to be more important We control for the most important determinants of achievement that will confound peer estimates by removing student and school-by-grade fixed effects in addition to observable family and school characteristics The analysis also addresses the reciprocal nature of peer interactions and the interpretation of estimates based upon models using past achievement as the measure of peer group quality The results indicate that peer achievement has a positive effect on achievement growth Moreover, students throughout the school test score distribution appear to benefit from higher achieving schoolmates On the other hand, the variance in achievement appears to have no systematic effect

Empirical analysis of peer effects on student achievement has been open to question because of the difficulties of separating peer effects from other confounding influences While most econometric attention has been directed at issues of simultaneous determination of peer interactions, we argue that issues of omitted and mismeasured variables are likely to be more important We control for the most important determinants of achievement that will confound peer estimates by removing student and school-by-grade fixed effects in addition to observable family and school characteristics The analysis also addresses the reciprocal nature of peer interactions and the interpretation of estimates based upon models using past achievement as the measure of peer group quality The results indicate that peer achievement has a positive effect on achievement growth Moreover, students throughout the school test score distribution appear to benefit from higher achieving schoolmates On the other hand, the variance in achievement appears to have no systematic effect Eric A Hanushek John F Kain Hoover Institution Green Center for the Study of Stanford University Science and Society Stanford, CA 94305-6010 University of Texas at Dallas and NBER PO Box 830688 hanushek@hooverstanfordedu Richardson, TX 75083-0688 Jacob M Markman Steven G Rivkin Department of Economics Department of Economics Amherst College Amherst College Amherst, MA 01002 Amherst, MA 01002 Does the Ability of Peers Affect Student Achievement? by Eric A Hanushek, John F Kain, Jacob M Markman, and Steven G Rivkin The peer group composition of schools is undeniably important in the minds of parents as well as policy makers at the local, state, and federal level Residential location decisions of families, various state and federal laws, and court interpretations of school district policies frequently have an implicit if not explicit peer group component There have nonetheless been relatively few direct investigations of the impact of peer groups on student performance and what evidence exists has been open to widely varying interpretations This paper pursues a unique identification strategy based on small perturbations in cohort composition to extract the causal impacts of peer group characteristics on achievement Peer group effects have played a prominent role in a number of policy debates including ability tracking, anti-poverty programs in both rural areas and urban ghettos, and school desegregation In addition, opposition to the growing demand for expanded school choice or the provision of education vouchers often focuses on the importance of peers and potential for greater economic and social isolation of disadvantaged students At the same time advocates of choice often tout its potential for reducing the impact of neighborhood economic and racial segregation The role of peers also has entered increasingly into theoretical analyses of school choice Starting from the observation that many people express concern about other students, a variety of analyses (eg, Benabou (1993, 1996), Caucutt (forthcoming), de Bartolome (1990), and Epple and Romano (1998)) have examined the equilibrium properties of choice and peer group effects on student achievement This attention to peer effects has taken place largely in the absence of compelling empirical evidence on the impact of peer group characteristics on a variety of academic, social, and labor market outcomes As Brock and Durlauf (forthcoming), Manski (1993) and Moffitt (2001) point out, the empirical analysis of peer influences has been inhibited by both conceptual and data problems -problems that raise serious questions about interpretation of the existing

Jacob M. Markman

Papers

Does Peer Ability Affect Student Achievement

Does Peer Ability Affect Student Achievement

Does Peer Ability Affect Student Achievement

Does the Ability of Peers Affect Student Achievement