School‐track Environment or Endowment: What Determines Different Other‐regarding Behavior across Peer Groups? School-track Environment or Endowment: What Determines Different Other-regarding Behavior across Peer Groups? *

We demonstrate that school-track environment is a determinant in the formation of other-regarding preferences. Using experimental data of German schoolchildren, we compare other-regarding behavior across two school tracks resulting from achievement grouping. Across tracks, pupils differ in their share of giving in the dictator game as well as in the shares of free-riders and social welfare maximizers. Although tracking also results in deviant peer groups regarding individual endowment, differences in IQ scores and self-evaluated personality cannot explain the gap in experimental outcomes. A matching analysis confirms that besides aspects of achievement tracking results in a robust treatment effect on otherregarding preferences.