BECE. Newsletter 

Vol.21, No.1, 2025, BECE 2003 

 

 

 

 

Peer Effects of High-Achieving Students 

By Chen, T. & Dong, C. 
Correspondence to: Caiting Dong, Guangdong University of Finance, China. E-

mail: 47-301@gduf.edu.cn 

EER effects have not only near-term impacts on adolescents’ cognitive 

and non-cognitive development but also implications for their lifelong 

trajectories. This study is an investigation into the effects of the proportion of 

high-achieving students in a class on cognitive performance, educational ex-

pectations, school adaptation, and mental health of their classmates, based on 

data of middle school students with random class assignment from the China 

Education Panel Survey (CEPS).  

Research Findings: 

• Middle school students who had ranked among top students in 

grade six in primary schools had a significantly positive influence 

on cognitive performance and educational expectations of their 

classmates. Yet, no such influence could be found on the latter’s 

school adaptation and mental health. The positive influence of 

high-achieving students may be due to the fact that they could 

serve as excellent role models for their peers, boosting motivation 

levels, increasing active learning, fueling interest in reading, en-

hancing peer interaction quality in the latter.  

• On the other hand, high-achieving students also imposed certain 

academic pressures on their peers, leading to increased participa-

tion in out-of-school tutoring and longer study hours in them. 

Heterogeneity analysis reveals that the former’s positive influence 

on the latter’s cognitive performance is short-term, only evident 

in the seventh grade and no longer significant in the ninth grade. 

Nevertheless, their influence on the educational expectations of 

ordinary students was more enduring. Additionally, the peer ef-

fects of high-achieving female students were more prominent 

than those of their male counterparts. 

The findings of this empirical study have significant implications for 

China’s current educational policies at the compulsory education level, such 

as school place allocation reform and admission by lot-drawing. These poli-

cies, which involve randomly assigning students to schools and balancing 

class compositions, can mitigate over-concentration of high-ability students 

in certain schools or classes. Dispersing high-ability students across schools 

P 

mailto:47-301@gduf.edu.cn


 

Vol.21, No.1, 2025, BECE 2004 

and classes can give fuller play to their exemplary roles and peer effects. 

Overall, this is beneficial for balanced development of basic education, nar-

rowing academic divides caused by school choice, and promoting equity in 

education. 

 

Source: China Journal of Economics, 2025;12(02):265-282.