The role of social interactions in modifying individual behavior is central to many fields of social science. In education, one essential aspect is that “good” peers can potentially improve students’ academic achievement, career choices, or labor market outcomes later in life. Indeed,...

We analyse peer effects among students of a middle-sized Italian public university. We explain students' average grade in exams passed during their Second Level Degree course on the basis of their pre-determined measures of abilities, personal characteristics and peer group abilities. Thanks to...

This paper exploits discontinuities in the assigment of scholarships targeted at low income students in an Italian University in order to evaluate the effects of monetary incentives on students' academic achievement. Results reveal positive and sizeable causal effects both in terms of credits...

We exploit the assignment of exam form in a high-stakes Norwegian high school exam to estimate the impact of exam form on exam results, later school performance, graduation and longer run outcomes. Results indicate that written exams significantly reduce exam grades and reduce the probability of...

This study investigates what factors determine students' academic performance in five major economies in East Asia, using the dataset from the 2007 survey of Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). We explicitly consider initial maturity differences, endogeneity of class...