Peer Gender and Schooling: Evidence from Ethiopia

We study the relation of classmate gender composition to school absences and test scores in a context characterized by strong social norms and scarce school resources. We base our results on a unique survey of students across classrooms and schools in Ethiopia and exploit the random assignment of students to classrooms. We find a strong asymmetry: whereas females benefit from exposure to more female classmates as demonstrated by reduced absenteeism and improvement on math test scores, males are unaffected. We further find that exposure to more female classmates improves motivation and class participation, and, in general, that the effects of classmate gender composition are consistent with social interaction effects.