Jane Cooley's Home Page

Job Market Thesis
“Desegregation and the Achievement Gap: Do Diverse Peers Help”, January 2006. (PDF)

Abstract: Understanding peer effects is critical to evaluating the impact of de facto public school segregation on the achievement of white and nonwhite students. Using a unique panel data set of North Carolina public elementary school students, I estimate a model of achievement production that incorporates heterogeneous responses by students at different points of the achievement distribution, while also allowing for peer spillovers to vary across races and for the formation of different race-based reference groups within the classroom. I find evidence of stronger peer influences within reference groups than across reference groups, the magnitude of which varies substantially across the percentiles of the achievement distribution. I apply my results to evaluate the efficiency and distributional effects of alternative classroom assignment policies. Diversifying peer groups leads to small but fairly uniform improvements in the achievement gap across the achievement distribution.

Publications and Working Papers
"Returns to Schooling: Results when the Counterfactual is Observed”, with Peter Arcidiacono and Andrew Hussey, 2004, revise and resubmit at International Economic Review. (PDF)

"Socially Optimal Classroom Grouping: A Theoretical Investigation of German and U.S. Education Systems in the Context of Other Social Policies”, Summer 2004.

"Outstanding Female Economists in the Analysis and Practice of Development Economics”, with Yana V. Rodgers, World Development 27(8), August 1999, 1397-1411.


Jane C. Cooley
Contact Information
Department of Economics Box 90097 Duke University Durham, NC 27708-0097 Email: jcooley@econ.duke.edu Cell: (919) 451-1072 (preferred, has voicemail) Work: (919) 660-8161 Office: 308H Social Sciences Building
Curriculum Vitae
CV (PDF)
Research Interests
Economics of Education, Public Economics
Research
Job Market Thesis “Desegregation and the Achievement Gap: Do Diverse Peers Help”, January 2006. (PDF) Abstract: Understanding peer effects is critical to evaluating the impact of de facto public school segregation on the achievement of white and nonwhite students. Using a unique panel data set of North Carolina public elementary school students, I estimate a model of achievement production that incorporates heterogeneous responses by students at different points of the achievement distribution, while also allowing for peer spillovers to vary across races and for the formation of different race-based reference groups within the classroom. I find evidence of stronger peer influences within reference groups than across reference groups, the magnitude of which varies substantially across the percentiles of the achievement distribution. I apply my results to evaluate the efficiency and distributional effects of alternative classroom assignment policies. Diversifying peer groups leads to small but fairly uniform improvements in the achievement gap across the achievement distribution. Publications and Working Papers "Returns to Schooling: Results when the Counterfactual is Observed”, with Peter Arcidiacono and Andrew Hussey, 2004, revise and resubmit at International Economic Review. (PDF) "Socially Optimal Classroom Grouping: A Theoretical Investigation of German and U.S. Education Systems in the Context of Other Social Policies”, Summer 2004. "Outstanding Female Economists in the Analysis and Practice of Development Economics”, with Yana V. Rodgers, World Development 27(8), August 1999, 1397-1411.
References
Thomas Nechyba, Fuchsberg-Levine Family Professor of Economics, Duke University Box 90097, Durham, NC 27708-0097 phone: (919) 660-1815, email: nechyba@econ.duke.edu Patrick Bajari, Professor of Economics, University of Michigan 266 Lorch Hall, 611 Tappan Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1220 phone: (734) 763-5319, email: bajari@umich.edu Han Hong, Professor of Economics, Duke University Box 90097, Durham NC 27708-0097 phone: (919) 660-1890, email: hanhong@econ.duke.edu Charles Clotfelter, Z. Smith Reynolds Professor of Public Policy Studies, Professor of Economics and Law, Duke University 215 Terry Sanford Institute, Box 90239, Durham, NC 27708 Phone: (919) 613-7361, email: cltfltr@pps.duke.edu
Department of Economics, Duke University, Box 90097, Durham, NC, 27708-0097