Cheating and social interactions. Evidence from a randomized experiment in a national evaluation program

We investigate cheating behavior in school using a unique data set drawn from a national evaluation test. We exploit a randomized experiment to identify social interactions in theclassroom and estimate a cheating social multiplier of about two, which is consistent witha change in students’ achievements twice as large as the initial response. Cheating behavioris found to be more relevant in primary schools as compared to junior-high schools. Wealso show that cheating occurs mainly when teachers shirk or lower monitoring effort letting students exchange information and cooperate. Differences in the estimated effectsare found in terms of social ties among classmates and social capital endowment in the territory