北大经院工作坊第815场
Why Do Peer Effects Matter on Student Outcomes? Evidence from a Seat Randomization Experiment in China
行为和实验经济学工作坊
主讲人：Simon Fan 范承泽（香港岭南大学经济学系教授）
主持老师：（北大经院）陆方文
参与老师：
（北大经院）平新乔、秦雪征、庄晨、曹光宇
（北大光华）孟涓涓、高彧
（北大现代农学院）刘承芳、罗仁福、候玲玲、王悦
（北大教育学院）杨钋、丁延庆、马莉萍、朱琼
时间：2024年3月5日（周二）10:00-11:30
地点：北京大学经济学院302会议室
主讲人简介：
范承泽是香港岭南大学的经济学教授，自1994年在布朗大学获得博士学位以来一直在该校任教。他出版了三本社会经济学领域的学术著作，分别是《Vanity economics: An economic exploration of sex, marriage and family》（Edward Elgar Publishing, 2014）、《Culture, institution, and development in China: the economics of national character》（Routledge, 2016）以及《The socioeconomics of nationalism in China: historical and contemporary perspectives》（Taylor & Francis, 2022）。范教授还在多个国际期刊上发表了约五十篇论文，其中包括《International Economic Review》、《Journal of Development Economics》、《Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization》、《Journal of Public Economics》以及《Review of Economics and Statistics》等。
摘要：
Peer effects on student outcomes are a crucial topic, but the reasons behind their significance remain unclear. While it is commonly believed that classmates aid each other, leading to better test scores, an alternative perspective suggests that lower-performing schools may have more disruptive behavior, resulting in negative peer effects. To address this, a seat randomization experiment was conducted in rural China, overcoming selection and reflection problems that hinder peer effect identification. The analysis indicates limited and inconclusive evidence of misbehaviors among peers significantly affecting test scores, likely due to strict disciplinary measures in Chinese middle schools. Additionally, controlling various measures of student behavior, the study finds that ability peer effect, measured by deskmates' test scores, have a notable impact on Chinese test scores but not in Mathematics. This suggests that classmates may not teach mathematical problem-solving skills and lack ability spillover in this subject. In the examined Chinese schools, the main mechanism for the "ability peer effect" appears to be interpersonal comparisons. When a deskmate performs well academically, it motivates the student to study harder, resulting in improved Chinese test scores, where effort matters more than ability or problem-solving skills.
供稿单位：科研与博士后办公室
供稿人：陆方文
