| Autor: |
Yan, Shannon, Hoxby, Caroline, Stanford University, Department of Economics |
| Rok vydání: |
2022 |
| Předmět: |
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| DOI: |
10.25740/xd245zj6456 |
| Popis: |
Peer effects within classrooms are powerful as they can lead to a more optimal distribution of peers, thus improving educational outcomes, creating more efficient human capital investments, and promoting macroeconomic growth. I attempt to measure gender peer effects within STEM education by employing a strategy that exploits variation in STEM interest among females across cohorts within a particular school as a source of idiosyncratic variation. To measure the effect of gender composition within a STEM classroom on the probability that a student graduates with a STEM degree, I instrument the gender composition of a classroom on the share of women in that cohort who expressed an interest in STEM prior to their freshman year of college. I find that there are indeed gender peer effects in STEM education: a 10 percent increase in the proportion of females within a STEM cohort leads to a 7.77 percent increase in the share of females and a 5.52 percent decrease in the share of males graduating with a STEM degree. I also extend my analysis to examine the effect within certain racial groups and fields of study and find statistically significant results varying in magnitude and direction. I also find evidence that gender peer effects in STEM classrooms are non-linear: both men and women in STEM classrooms with a below-median female share are 32.67-33.24 percent more likely to graduate with a degree in STEM when there is a 10 percent increase in the female share of the classroom. |
| Databáze: |
OpenAIRE |
| Externí odkaz: |
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