Peer Quality and the Academic Benefits to Attending Better Schools

Mark Hoekstra, Pierre Mouganie and Yaojing Wang

No 22337, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Despite strong demand for attending high schools with better peers, there is mixed evidence on whether doing so improves academic outcomes. We estimate the cognitive returns to high school quality using administrative data on a high-stakes college entrance exam in China. To overcome selection bias, we use a regression discontinuity design that compares applicants barely above and below high school admission thresholds. Results indicate that while peer quality improves significantly across all sets of admission cutoffs, the only increase in performance occurs from attending Tier I high schools. Further evidence suggests that the returns to high school quality are driven by teacher quality, rather than peer quality or class size.

JEL-codes: I21 I24 I26 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cna, nep-edu, nep-lma, nep-neu and nep-ure
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Published as Mark Hoekstra & Pierre Mouganie & Yaojing Wang, 2018. "Peer Quality and the Academic Benefits to Attending Better Schools," Journal of Labor Economics, vol 36(4), pages 841-884.

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Journal Article: Peer Quality and the Academic Benefits to Attending Better Schools (2018)
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