基于关系网络的教育中同伴效应估计——来自一所初中的证据

An Estimation of Peer Effects in Education Based on Social Network:Evidence from a Middle School

同伴效应是近年来教育和经济相关研究的热点话题之一,学生在成绩上的同伴效应格外引人关注,而这一效应不仅受同伴特征影响,更受同伴间关系影响。基于在浙江省一所初中调查所获得的学生成绩和朋友关系网络信息,本文将同伴效应的核心研究对象从同学间转向朋友间,并基于关系网络信息构建工具变量,消除择友导致的内生性。研究发现,朋友间在数学和英语成绩上存在显著的同伴效应,并且在数值上远大于此前研究基于外生群组估计的同学间同伴效应。本文的结果意味着,只有将学生间关系网络的作用纳入分析框架之中,才有可能深入理解同伴效应,并基于此来指导相关的政策和教学实践。

The peer effects between friends instead of classmates are estimated in this paper.Based on a unique date set from a middle school(grades 7-9)located at Zhejiang province,this paper uses the information of friendship network to construct instrumental variable to control endogenous problem during the estimation of peer effects.We find the peer effects in both Math and English performance are not only significant statistically,but also significantly larger than the previous estimations of classmates’peer effects.Our results indicate that network plays a key role in students’peer effects and should be considered in future research to understand better of peer effects,and be used to guide relevant policy and practice.