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CEP Education and Skills Seminars

Tracking with Friends: Experimental Evidence on Students' Valuation of Peers

Pedro Freitas (University of Oxford), joint with Cátia Batista, Wayne Sandholtz and Ana Balcão Reis from Nova SBE


Tuesday 19 November 2024 16:00 - 17:00

This event is both online and in person

SAL 2.04, 2nd Floor Conference Room, Sir Arthur Lewis Building, LSE, 32 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London WC2A 3PH

About this event

In this study, we build on the existing peer-effect literature, specifically examining how peers, particularly close friends, influence key educational decisions. We conduct a randomized experiment among 9th-grade students to measure their willingness to pay (WTP) for attending high school with their best friend. Our methodology involves first surveying students to identify their best friends within the classroom. We then ask students to indicate their preferred and second-preferred high school courses of study, along with their beliefs about their best friend's course preferences. Subsequently, we present a series of hypothetical scenarios where potential returns from different high school courses are varied. Students’ course preferences are elicited under each scenario. Crucially, we randomize which students see these scenarios framed as an opportunity to attend a course alongside their best friend. Our findings reveal that when students are reminded that their best friend will be in the same course, they adjust their initial course preferences up to 15% of the time.


Participants are expected to adhere to the CEP Events Code of Conduct.


Directions

This event will take place in SAL 2.04, 2nd Floor Conference Room, Sir Arthur Lewis Building, LSE, 32 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London WC2A 3PH.

The building is labelled SAL on the LSE campus map. You can also find us on Google Maps. For further information, go to contact us.

Education and Skills Seminars are part of the CEP's Education and Skills programme.