Same-Gender Peer Role Models in Education

Abstract  

There is evidence that the gender of high-level school participants (teachers, principals, etc) impacts students. It remains an open question whether same-group peers can act as role models for their classmates. We exploit a setting with random assignment of students to classrooms and salient recognition of the top performer in each classroom. The top performer in each classroom serves as teacher assistant and thus recognized as a peer role model. We identify the impact of being exposed to a top performer of the same-(compared with opposite-) gender on test scores, track choices, and university outcomes using novel rich data from high school students in Greece. Further, we analyze the likelihood of other students mimicking the top performer's choices. We find that female students quasi-randomly assigned in classrooms with a same-gender top performer score higher in STEM and are more likely to apply and study STEM in high school and college. Top performer's gender seems to be irrelevant for males. We find that the effects of same-gender role model on the choice of STEM track and college are mainly driven by female students in low-income neighborhoods. We also show that female students are more likely to conform with same-gender top performers when female top performers choose STEM tracks and colleges.  

Bio

Rigissa Megalokonomou is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Queensland and is a Research Affiliate at the CESifo research network. She holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Warwick (2016). Rigissa is an applied economist, and her research combines micro-econometric techniques with the collection of unique, large datasets in understanding policy-related questions. Her expertise is in the economics of education and gender economics. She has published in the Economic Journal, Journal of Human Resources, European Economic Review, etc.  She is currently working on understanding how to measure and what shapes teachers' gender biases and discrimination not only in education, but also in other environments. She is also working on teachers' value added, teachers' human capital depreciation, and impact of role models. Her also has research on understanding how social comparisons and interactions affect students' productivity, educational choices, and labor market outcomes. Her research has been featured at The Guardian, The New York Times, The Conversation, LSE EUROPP, VOX EU, Epoch Times etc.  She is currently an Associate Editor at the Journal of Population Economics.