Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

The benefits of preschool attendance may spill over directly from students who have preschool experience (“preschool-goers”) to those who do not (“non-preschool-goers”) when they enter formal schooling. Despite the vast literature on peer effects, little attention has been given to the spillover effects of preschool attendance. This study provides the first experimental evidence of the peer effects of preschool attendance on student cognitive and noncognitive outcomes in early adolescence. We exploit the random assignment of students to classrooms upon junior high school entry (7^th grade) using longitudinal, nationally representative data in China. Specifically, we examine the effects of having peers who went to preschool in one’s junior high school classroom on student academic performance, cognitive ability, mental health, school engagement, and educational expectation at the end of 7^th grade and 8^th grade. We also explore inter-student relationship, student-teacher interaction, and after-school study time as potential mechanisms.

Preliminary analyses of the 7^th-grade data show that a higher proportion of preschool-goers in the class is associated with modest gains in academic performance and educational expectation. We find suggestive evidence for the peer effects operating through improved inter-student relationship. Notably, after-school study time is the most robust mechanism among the three. The positive effects of preschool-goer peers on academic performance and educational expectation are mostly driven by preschool-goers. Both preschool-goers and non-preschool-goers spend more time on study after school when there is a higher proportion of preschool-goers in the class. Further analyses will include 8^th-grade data, heterogeneity checks, and nonlinearity of effects.