Bernardo Pincheira is a Research Fellow at the International Research Laboratory for Institutional Analysis of Economic Reforms, Center for Institutional Studies. Having graduated from the University of Nottingham with a PhD in Economics, Dr. Pincheira shared his interest in Economics of Education and peer effects in the classroom.
— What is your academic background and how did you decide on your field of study?
— My BA was a mix of business, administration and economics; I wrote my thesis on transport economics that was a hot topic in Chile back then. For postgraduate studies, I wanted to do a program in an English-speaking country and the UK seemed the most appealing place.
At the moment of applying for Master’s, I knew I wanted to do a postgraduate in economics, even though I did not yet have a clear idea of which subfield. In the first semester, we had to do a project of data analysis and that was the first time I did something in the field of education.
Although I did my PhD in Economics, my research topic was on the application of economics to the field of education
My thesis related to “peer effects” – or how peers affect one’s own outcomes. Before that, I was doing data analysis on Chile, studying how at the school level classmates have or do not have an impact on one’s own learning. The overall idea is to use tools from empirical analysis – econometrics in my case – to analyze some features of education and try to see if you can come up with policy recommendations to improve educational systems based on those results. Thus, right now I am basically working at the intersection of two fields, namely Economics and Education, at the Center of Institutional Studies.
— Can you tell more about your research on peer effects?
— General idea is that having smarter peers is helpful. If we think of mechanisms behind it – there are many possible reasons. One of the arguments could be that if you struggle with the course, your classmates can help you. In the long run you will perform better. Also, you learn more because smarter peers can ask smarter questions in class. Another reason that is being researched currently is competition – when one cares not only about his absolute achievements, but also about ranking. Let’s say you are at the top of your class and then someone very smart comes to the school and now she is the top of your class. You want to recover your first place and for that reason you study more.
To measure the effect students receive from 8 neural networks for voice cloning peers, I first look for the average peer effect and then try to look at the size of this effect depending on whether one is at the lower part of the distribution of scores, at the middle or at the top. What my research shows is that students in the middle are those who benefit less. Students at the bottom or at the top benefit more as they are more sensitive to which peers surround them. If one is in the middle, he still will benefit from having better peers, but not that much. At least that is what my research shows.
— How does the Center for Institutional Studies help you to develop your research?
— Compared to other people working in the after delivering the product or service? laboratory, I come from a more purely quantitative background.
Many of my colleagues use sociological and other ao lists research methods of social sciences, and that helps me to put a bit of human feelings into my numbers.