Feasible Peer Effects—How Seat Neighbors Affect Educational Attainment in Hungary  Page description

Help  Print 
Back »

 

Details of project

 
Identifier
125358
Type FK
Principal investigator Keller, Tamás
Title in Hungarian A padtársak hatása – hogyan befolyásoljak a padtársak egymás tanulmányi teljesítményét
Title in English Feasible Peer Effects—How Seat Neighbors Affect Educational Attainment in Hungary
Keywords in Hungarian Padtársak hatása; iskolai teljesítmény; társas kapcsolathálók
Keywords in English Peer effect; Desk mate effect; Educational achievement; Social networks
Discipline
Sociology (Council of Humanities and Social Sciences)100 %
Ortelius classification: Educational sociology
Panel Society
Department or equivalent TARKI
Starting date 2017-09-01
Closing date 2023-05-31
Funding (in million HUF) 37.142
FTE (full time equivalent) 2.88
state running project





 

Final report

 
Results in Hungarian
Több fontos társadalmi elmélet szerint a tanulók befolyásolják egymást. Az ilyen kortárshatások empirikus becslése azonban nehéz a szelekciós torzítás miatt, hiszen talán éppen azért hasonlítanak egymásra a diákok és a kortársaik eredményei, mert azok eleve hasonlóak voltak. Ennek a szelekciós torzításnak kiküszöbölésére nagymintás, randomizált terepkísérletet végeztünk, amelyben a diákokat egy félévre véletlenszerűen osztottuk kétfős iskolai padokba, lehetővé téve a padtársak diákokra gyakorolt hatásának megbecslését. Eredményeink szerint a padtársak jelentősen befolyásolják a barátságok kialakulását, mivel a padtársak nagyobb valószínűséggel váltak barátokká mint az osztályba járó többi diák. Azt is megállapítottuk, hogy jótanuló mellett ülve nő a rossztanulók tanulmányi eredménye. Ugyanakkor a rossztanulók mellett ülve csökken a jótanulók tanulmányi eredménye. Ezért a rossztanulók jótanulók mellé ültetése nem befolyásolja az osztály átlagos tanulmányi teljesítményét, de csökkenti az osztályon belüli teljesítménybeli egyenlőtlenségeket. Az elméleti előjelzésekkel ellentétben nem találtunk bizonyítékot arra, hogy a padtársak befolyásolják a tanulók akadémiai önértékelését, vagyis azt, hogy a tanulók hogyan érzékelik saját képességeiket. Arra sem találtunk bizonyítékot, hogy Roma tanulók mellett ülve csökkenne a velük szembeni előítéletesség.
Results in English
Multiple prominent social theories predict that students influence each other (“peer effects”). However, the empirical estimation of such peer effects is difficult because of selection bias: perhaps students’ and peer’s outcomes resemble each other because students and their peers were similar to begin with. To overcome selection bias, we conducted a large-scale randomized field experiment in which we randomly allocated students to two-person desks for one semester, enabling us to assess the causal effect of deskmates on multiple outcomes. Randomization prevented self-selection into peer relations and allowed us to estimate causal peer effects. We find that deskmates significantly influence the formation of friendships, as seat neighbors were more likely to become friends. We also found sitting next to stronger students increases the learning outcomes of the weakest students, and sitting next to a weaker student decreases the learning outcomes of the strongest students. Therefore, sitting academically weak students next to academically strong students does not affect the mean achievement level in the classroom, but it will decrease inequality in achievement. Contrary to the predictions, we find no evidence that deskmates affect students’ academic self-concept, i.e., the way how students perceive their own abilities. We also find no evidence that sitting next to minority students affects prejudice against minority students.
Full text https://www.otka-palyazat.hu/download.php?type=zarobeszamolo&projektid=125358
Decision
Yes





 

List of publications

 
Hubert János Kiss, Tamás Keller: The short-term effect of COVID-19 on schoolchildren's generosity, Applied Economics Letters 29(9): 842–46, 2022
Keller, Tamás, Jinho Kim, and Felix Elwert: Peer Effects on Academic Self-Concept: A Large Randomized Field Experiment, European Sociological Review, 2023
Keller Tamás: No Evidence of Direct Peer Influence in Upper-Secondary Track Choice—Evidence from Hungary, European Societies 25(1): 154–80, 2023
Keller, Tamás, and Felix Elwert: Feasible Peer Effects: Experimental Evidence for Deskmate Effects on Educational Achievement and Inequality, Sociological Science, 2023
Felix Elwert, Tamás Keller & Andreas Kotsadam: Rearranging the Desk Chairs: A Large Randomized Field Experiment on the Effects of Close Contact on Interethnic Relations, American Journal of Sociology, 2023
Elwert F, Keller T, Kotsadam A: Rearranging the Desk Chairs, Institute of Economics, Centre for Economic and Regional Studies, 2020
Keller T, Kiss H J: The evolution of the relationship between delay of gratification and socioeconomic status during COVID-19-induced online education, Institute of Economics, Centre for Economic and Regional Studies, 2020
Kiss H J, Keller T: The short-term effect of COVID-19 on schoolchildren’s generosity, Institute of Economics, Centre for Economic and Regional Studies, 2020
Rohrer J M, Keller T, Elwert F: Proximity Can Induce Diverse Friendships, Institute of Economics, Centre for Economic and Regional Studies, 2020
Keller Tamás: How Desk Mates Affect Educational Achievement A Large-Scale Randomized Field Experiment in Hungarian Schools, Paper presented at the 26th Annual Workshop Transitions in Youth, Mannheim, 5-8 September 2018, 2018
Keller Tamás: Dare to Dream: A Vignette Survey on Self-Selection in Secondary Education Track Choice, SOCIOL RES ONLINE Online First: (1) pp. 1-20., 2018
Keller Tamás: Caught in the Monkey Trap: Elaborating the Hypothesis for Why Income Aspiration Decreases Life Satisfaction, J HAPPINESS STUD Online first: (1) pp. 1-12., 2018
Keller Tamás: The Mid-week Effect and Why Thursdays Are Blue: The Weekly Rhythm of Satisfaction in Hungary, SOCIOL CAS 54: (3) pp. 371-399., 2018
Keller Tamás; Takács Károly: Peers that count: The influence of deskmates on test scores, Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, 2019
Keller Tamás, Takács Károly: Peers that count: The influence of deskmates on test scores, RESEARCH IN SOCIAL STRATIFICATION AND MOBILITY 100408, 2019
Keller Tamás: Dare to Dream: A Vignette Survey on Self-Selection in Secondary Education Track Choice, SOCIOL RES ONLINE Online First: (1) pp. 1-20., 2018
Keller Tamás: Caught in the Monkey Trap: Elaborating the Hypothesis for Why Income Aspiration Decreases Life Satisfaction, J HAPPINESS STUD Online first: (1) pp. 1-12., 2018
Keller Tamás: The Mid-week Effect and Why Thursdays Are Blue: The Weekly Rhythm of Satisfaction in Hungary, SOCIOL CAS 54: (3) pp. 371-399., 2018
Keller Tamás: Differences in Roma and non-Roma students’ ratings of their peers’ popularity: an inquiry into the oppositional culture in Hungarian schools with the use of a survey expe, Quality & Quantity 54(4):1233–55., 2020
Keller T: Differences in Roma and non-Roma students’ ratings of their peers’ popularity, QUALITY AND QUANTITY: INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF METHODOLOGY 54: pp. 1233-1255., 2020
Julia M. Rohrer, Tamás Keller, Felix Elwert: Proximity can induce diverse friendships: A large randomized classroom experiment, PLOS One, 2021
Hubert János Kiss, Tamás Keller: The short-term effect of COVID-19 on schoolchildren's generosity, Applied Economics Letters, 2021




Back »