Do Motivated Classmates Matter for Educational Success?

Abstract

I provide evidence of social spillovers of personality by showing that being in class with motivated peers affects educational success. I first document that academic motivation, a key aspect of personality in the context of education, predicts own achievement, classroom behavior, high school GPA, and college-test taking among elementary school students. Exploiting random assignment of students to classes, I then show that exposure to motivated classmates causally affects achievement, an effect that operates over and above spillovers of classmates’ past achievement and socio-demographic composition. However, peer motivation in elementary school does not affect own motivation and long-term educational success.