This paper investigates how the peer gender composition in university affects students' major choices and labor market outcomes. Women who are randomly assigned to more female peers become less likely to choose male-dominated majors, and they end up in jobs in which they work fewer hours and...

We study same-sex role model effects of teachers with a meta-analysis and our own study of three million students in 90 countries. Both approaches show that role model effects on performance are, on average, small: 0.030 SD in the meta-analysis and 0.015 SD in our multi-country study. Going...

The idea that students benefit from same-sex teachers has motivated policies around the world aimed at reducing gender inequalities. However, we do not know the size or generalizability of such same-sex teacher effects. We fill this gap by conducting a meta-analysis and our own study using data...

We use quasi-experimental variation in the timing of national standardized test-score reports to estimate the causal impact of giving parents objective information about children’s academic achievement. Releasing test scores leads to more modest perceptions of academic achievement and reduced...

We use quasi-experimental variation in the timing of national standardized test-score reports to estimate the causal impact of giving parents objective information about children’s academic achievement. Releasing test scores leads to more modest perceptions of academic achievement and reduced...

We use quasi-experimental variation in the timing of national standardized test-score reports to estimate the causal impact of giving parents objective information about children's academic achievement. Releasing test scores leads to more modest perceptions of academic achievement and reduced...

This paper studies the extent to which young children develop their cognitive ability in high and low quality schools. We use a representative panel data set containing cognitive test scores of 4-6 year olds in Dutch schools. School quality is measured by the school's average achievement test...

This paper provides evidence of a novel facet of peer effects by showing how peer personality affects educational achievement. We exploit random assignment of students to university sections and find that students perform better in the presence of more persistent peers and more risk-averse...