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Own Motivation, Peer Motivation, and Educational Success

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  • Jan Bietenbeck

Abstract

I study how motivation shapes own and peers’ educational success. Using data from Project STAR, I find that academic motivation in early elementary school, as measured by a standardized psychological test, predicts contemporaneous and future test scores, high school GPA, and college-test taking over and above cognitive skills. Exploiting random assignment of students to classes, I find that exposure to motivated classmates causally affects contemporaneous reading achievement, a peer effect that operates over and above spillovers from classmates’ past achieve-ment and socio-demographic composition. However, peer motivation does not affect longer-term educational success, likely because it does not change own motivation.

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  • Jan Bietenbeck, 2020. "Own Motivation, Peer Motivation, and Educational Success," CESifo Working Paper Series 8696, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_8696
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    Cited by:

    1. Wennberg, Karl & Norgren, Axel, 2021. "Models of Peer Effects in Education," Working Papers 21/3, Stockholm School of Economics, Center for Educational Leadership and Excellence.
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    3. Briana Ballis, 2021. "Does Peer Motivation Impact Educational Investments? Evidence From DACA," Working Papers 2021-027, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    motivation; personality; peer effects; Project STAR;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity

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