Should I get a master’s degree?

This paper examines workplace peer effects on advanced education attainment. Using administrative data from the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and conditional exogeneous assignment of employees to workplace, I provide empirical evidence that coworkers’ education investment behavior increases the likelihood of using Employer-Provided Educational Assistance (EPEA) benefits to start and eventually complete a graduate degree. I find a 10 percentage point (p.p.) increase in the proportion of peers using Tuition Assistance (TA) increases the probability of starting a master’s degree by 4.99 p.p. Additionally, a 10 p.p. increase in the proportion of coworkers that have finished an advanced degree increases completion rates by 2.71 p.p. within eight years in the organization.