Peer effects on student achievement: evidence from Chile

This paper reports estimates of peer effects on student achievement, using a 1997 census of eighth-grade achievement in Chile. The-data allow detailed measures of peer characteristics to be constructed for each classroom within a school. The paper addresses the endogeneity of peer variables by including school fixed effects that control for unobserved family and student characteristics. The estimates suggest that the classroom mean of mothers' education is an important determinant of individual achievement, though subject to diminishing marginal returns. Additional specifications using family fixed effects are not suggestive that estimates are biased by within-school sorting. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.