Peer effects and the urban-rural education gap

Research problem and specific questionsSince the end of the 1990s, a large gap in educational equality has emerged between Swedish urban and rural areas, showing as systematically increasing differences in study results on several levels to the detriment of pupils´ study and work careers growing up outside of cities.

Little is known about the causes of this gap, however. This project investigates the consequences and explanatory power of ´peer effects´ for explaining this gap.

Peer effects arise because pupils influence each other positively through, e.g., involvement in schoolwork, or negatively through, e.g., unruly behavior or a relative lack of positive role models in the classroom.The project studies the following questions: Do peer effects increase the education gap between urban and rural schools?

Are there differences in peer effects for boys and girls due to the changes in pupil composition between urban and rural areas?

How are children with low- or high-educated parents affected by the changes, and how do peers affect children of native background vs. pupils with an immigrant background?

Data and method We will use extensive register data on pupils, parents, school classes, teachers, and schools in all Swedish schools since 1988, and study how pupils from the same grade at school or classmates affect pupils´ grades, upper secondary school choices, and going to university or not.

We exploit variation in sibling peer exposure and, to deal with simultaneity, we instrument peer characteristics their parents’ characteristics to assess causal relationships.Plan for project realizationWe are an interdisciplinary research group with educational sociology, economic geography, and educational economics expertise.

In addition, we have extensive experience working with education-related register data and publishing socially relevant in leading international journals and popular science and outreach.

The project consists of three work packages (WP), and each WP will result in one or two scientific articles each.RelevanceEducational attainment is a key predictor of life chances and a central quality of life. Our proposed project centers on a rarely studied topic: education inequality in urban and rural environments.

Understanding its causes is essential for further policy discussions and for designing mitigation policies. Moreover, documenting the existence and size of peer effects in schooling is pivotal for research and society.