This dissertation develops a theoretical model of educational peer effects and then empirically tests whether or not they exist. In the theoretical model, each student selects an effort level to maximize utility; this effort choice depends on his peer group's effort and race. The students' equilibrium effort expression results in hypotheses that can be directly investigated empirically, a definition of the social multiplier, and conditions under which a social multiplier exists. The empirical model uses student-level data with observations on complete classrooms and two measures of effort, self-assessed effort and time spent studying, to investigate whether or not peer effects exist. The estimation results of the empirical model, interpreted using a simulation-based technique, find a positive relationship between the amount of time a student spends studying and time spent studying by peers who share his race; for self-assessed effort, the results are ambiguous. Simulations of policy experiments show that effort is higher in more racially homogeneous classrooms and that a social multiplier exists for both a reduction in the time a student spends working at a part time job and an increase in the student's socioeconomic status. / Economics
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TEMPLE/oai:scholarshare.temple.edu:20.500.12613/1149 |
| Date | January 2010 |
| Creators | Edelman, Brent Michael |
| Contributors | Diamantaras, Dimitrios, Goetz, Michael L., Ritter, Moritz B. |
| Publisher | Temple University. Libraries |
| Source Sets | Temple University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation, Text |
| Format | 189 pages |
| Rights | IN COPYRIGHT- This Rights Statement can be used for an Item that is in copyright. Using this statement implies that the organization making this Item available has determined that the Item is in copyright and either is the rights-holder, has obtained permission from the rights-holder(s) to make their Work(s) available, or makes the Item available under an exception or limitation to copyright (including Fair Use) that entitles it to make the Item available., http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
| Relation | http://dx.doi.org/10.34944/dspace/1131, Theses and Dissertations |
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