Peer effects

This research analyzes how classmates, peers, social environments, and institutional settings shape students’ achievement, aspirations, competitiveness, occupational choices, and later labor market outcomes.

Ethnic Diversity in Compulsory Schooling and Occupational Choices: Can Diversity Increase the Supply in Care-Oriented Occupations. Industrial Relations, 2025 (online first). By Damiano Pregaldini, Simone Balestra and Uschi Backes-Gellner. Working Paper version

How Selectivity Shapes Selection. Swiss Leading House "Economics of Education" Working Paper No. 236, 2025. By Claudio Schilter.

Classroom rank in math, occupational choices and labor market outcomes. Swiss Leading House "Economics of Education" Working Paper No. 222, 2024. By Maddalena Davoli, Enzo Brox and Maurizio Strazzeri.

Competitive Peers: The Way to Higher Paying Jobs?Swiss Leading House "Economics of Education" Working Paper No. 228, 2024. By Claudio Schilter, Samuel Luethi and Stefan C. Wolter.

Private tutoring and academic achievement in a selective education system. Education Economics, 33(2024)4: 613-630.  By Maria Zumbühl, Stefanie Hof and Stefan C. Wolter. Working Paper version

High-Ability Influencers? The Heterogeneous Effects of Gifted Classmates. Journal of Human Resources, 58(2023)2: 633-665. By Simone Balestra, Aurélien Sallin and Stefan C. Wolter. Working Paper version

Sitting next to a dropout: Academic success of students with more educated peers. Economics of Education Review, 93(2023). By Daniel Goller, Andrea Diem and Stefan C. Wolter. Working Paper version

Educational diversity and individual pay: The advantages of combining academic and VET graduates in the workplace.Empirical Research in Vocational Education and Training, 12(2020): 1-21. By Simone Tuor Sartore and Uschi Backes-Gellner. Working Paper version

Girls' preferences for STEM and the effects of classroom gender composition: new evidence from a natural experiment.Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 178(2020): 102-123. By Damiano Pregaldini, Uschi Backes-Gellner and Gerald Eisenkopf. Working Paper version

Class Size in Early Grades, Student Grit and Later School Outcomes. Swiss Leading House "Economics of Education" Working Paper No. 129, 2017. By Jana Gross, Simone Balestra and Uschi Backes-Gellner. 

Heterogeneous Effects of Pupil-to-Teacher Ratio Policies - A Look at Class Size Reduction and Teacher Aide. Swiss Leading House "Economics of Education" Working Paper No. 102, 2014. By Simone Balestra and Uschi Backes-Gellner.