%0 Report
        %A Thiemann, Petra
        %T The Persistent Effects of Short-Term Peer Groups in Higher Education
        %D 2017
        %8 2017 Sep
        %I Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        %C Bonn
        %7 IZA Discussion Paper
        %N 11024
        %U https://www.iza.org/index.php/publications/dp11024
        %X This paper demonstrates that short-term peer exposure can generate achievement effects which persist for several months and years. I study a mandatory freshmen week for first-year undergraduates and exploit the random assignment of students to freshmen teams. I find that the freshmen week contributes to the formation of persistent social ties. Furthermore, peers' observable characteristics impact college achievement for up to three years. Ability peer effects are non-linear, i.e. very high or low levels of average peer ability in a group harm students' grades. These effects are most pronounced for low-ability students.
        %K peer effects
%K higher education
%K natural experiment
%K gender
%K region of origin
%K ability