Peer effects in education: recent empirical evidence

This chapter examines the recent empirical evidence on peer effects in education. Such effects may arise when agents interact within a network (e.g., a classroom or school), and their existence allows education policymakers to use network design as a lever to improve academic outcomes. The existing evidence suggests that peer effects are highly context-specific. The increasing availability of more detailed datasets and the development of new estimation methods can bring more clarity to this area of research.