[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":3,"doc-seo-137173-105":59,"doc-detail-137173-en":131},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,13,18,23,28,33,38,43,48,51,55],{"id":8,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":10,"show_sort_weight":11,"slug":12},1,"Document","Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":14,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":15,"show_sort_weight":16,"slug":17},2,"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":19,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":20,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":22},4,"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":24,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":25,"show_sort_weight":26,"slug":27},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":29,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":30,"show_sort_weight":31,"slug":32},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":34,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":35,"show_sort_weight":36,"slug":37},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":39,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":40,"show_sort_weight":41,"slug":42},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":44,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":45,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":47},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":49,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":50},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":53,"show_sort_weight":52,"slug":54},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":56,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":57,"show_sort_weight":24,"slug":58},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":60,"data":61},"ok",{"site_id":62,"language":63,"slug":64,"title":65,"keywords":66,"description":67,"schema_data":68,"social_meta":124,"head_meta":126,"extra_data":128,"updated_unix":130},105,"en","do-motivated-classmates-matter-for-educational-success","Do Motivated Classmates Matter for Educational Success?","","Evidence shows social spillovers of personality: being in class with motivated peers affects educational success. Academic motivation predicts students’ own achievement, classroom behavior, high school grade point average, and college-test taking using data from elementary school participants. Exploiting random assignment of students to classes, peer exposure causally increases achievement beyond spillovers from peers’ prior achievement and socio-demographic composition, while elementary-school peer motivation does not affect own motivation or long-term educational success.",{"@graph":69,"@context":123},[70,84,106],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/do-motivated-classmates-matter-for-educational-success/137173/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/do-motivated-classmates-matter-for-educational-success/137173.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Liam","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-18","2026-08-22",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":105},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",13,{"@type":107,"mainEntity":108},"FAQPage",[109,115,119],{"name":110,"@type":111,"acceptedAnswer":112},"What does the paper investigate about academic motivation and peers?","Question",{"text":113,"@type":114},"It tests whether motivated peers create social spillovers that influence students’ educational success.","Answer",{"name":116,"@type":111,"acceptedAnswer":117},"How does the study identify causal peer effects?",{"text":118,"@type":114},"It uses random assignment of students to existing classes within schools, generating exogenous variation in the predetermined motivation of classmates.",{"name":120,"@type":111,"acceptedAnswer":121},"Do motivated classmates affect students’ own motivation and long-term outcomes?",{"text":122,"@type":114},"The paper finds that peer motivation in elementary school does not affect students’ own motivation or their long-term educational success.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":125,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":127,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":129,"site_id":62},137173,1787401027,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":132},{"doc_id":129,"user_id":133,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":134,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":135,"file_id":136,"file_url":137,"file_type":138,"file_size":139,"view_count":105,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":140,"language":141,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":142,"faqs":143,"seo_title":144,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":130,"read_time":145},8796095461564,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_155a257f0dc6eb9ab79c44ca47cae57d","The Economic Journal, 135 (January), 36–58 [https://doi.org/10.1093/ej/ueae060](https://doi.org/10.1093/ej/ueae060) © The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal Economic Society. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs licence ([https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)), which permits non-commercial reproduction and distribution of the work, in any medium, provided the original work is not altered or transformed in any way, and that the work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, [please contact](please contact journals.permissions@oup.com)[ journals.permissions@oup.com](please contact journals.permissions@oup.com). Advance Access Publication Date: 27 June 2024  \nDO MOTIVATED CLASSMATES MATTER FOR  \nEDUCATIONAL SUCCESS? ∗  \nJan Bietenbeck  \nI 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 behaviour, the high school grade point average 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.  \nA growing literature in economics and psychology documents the importance of personality for success in life (Borghans et al., 2008 ; Almlund et al., 2011 ; Heckman et al., 2019). In particular, aspects of personality such as motivation, preferences and traits have been shown to predict performance in school and in the labour market (e.g., Duckworth et al., 2007 ; Steinmayr and Spinath, 2009 ; Golsteyn et al., 2014) . Despite this crucial role played by personality in shaping individuals’ own life outcomes, only very little research has examined how it affects other people in their social environment. This is surprising given that there is extensive evidence that peers matter for performance in school and in the workplace (e.g., Guryan et al., 2009 ; Mas and Moretti, 2009 ; Sacerdote, 2011) .  \nIn this paper, I study the spillover effects of academic motivation, a key aspect of personality in the context of education. I use data from the Tennessee Student-Teacher Achievement Ratio experiment (Project STAR), which followed a single cohort of children from the beginning of kindergarten until the end of third grade. Two features make this setting uniquely suited for my purpose. First, the experiment measured students’ academic motivation at the end of grades 1, 2 and 3 using a validated psychological scale. Second, some children entered the experiment in the second and third grades and were randomly assigned to existing classes within schools. This randomisation generated exogenous, observable variation in the predetermined motivation of entrants’ classmates, which I can use to estimate causal spillover effects.  \nPsychologists define motivation as the conscious and unconscious needs and desires of individuals (Roberts, 2006 ; Roberts and Yoon, 2022) . The scale used in Project STAR applies this definition to the context of learning and conceptualises academic motivation as consisting of two facets. First, achievement needs capture the utility that a child derives from learning and the associated social appreciation. Second, failure avoidance captures the disutility from low  \n∗ Corresponding address: Jan Bietenbeck, Department of Economics, Lund University, P.O. Box 7080, 220 07 Lund, [Sweden. Email:](Sweden. Email: mail@janbietenbeck.com)[ mail@janbietenbeck.com](Sweden. Email: mail@janbietenbe","cbCaivPgNueZTLNm","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaivPgNueZTLNm","pdf",686331,23,"English","# Introduction\n## Personality and peer effects in education\n## Research question and setting\n# Data and measurement\n## Project STAR experiment design\n## Motivation scale and facets\n# Empirical strategy and findings\n## Motivation predicts own outcomes\n## Causal effects of motivated classmates","[{\"question\":\"What does the paper investigate about academic motivation and peers?\",\"answer\":\"It tests whether motivated peers create social spillovers that influence students’ educational success.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the study identify causal peer effects?\",\"answer\":\"It uses random assignment of students to existing classes within schools, generating exogenous variation in the predetermined motivation of classmates.\"},{\"question\":\"Do motivated classmates affect students’ own motivation and long-term outcomes?\",\"answer\":\"The paper finds that peer motivation in elementary school does not affect students’ own motivation or their long-term educational success.\"}]","Do Motivated Classmates Matter for Educational Success? | PDF",58]