Peer Effects and Social Networks in Education

Abstract

This paper studies whether structural properties of friendship networks affect individual outcomes in education. We first develop a model that shows that, at the Nash equilibrium, the outcome of each individual embedded in a network is proportional to her Katz-Bonacich centrality measure. This measure takes into account both direct and indirect friends of each individual but puts less weight to her distant friends. We then bring the model to the data by using a very detailed dataset of adolescent friendship networks. We first characterize the exact conditions on the geometry of the peer network, so that the model is fully identified. We then show that, after controlling for observable individual characteristics and unobservable network specific factors, the individual's position in a network (as measured by her Katz-Bonacich centrality) is a key determinant of her level of activity. A standard deviation increase in the Katz-Bonacich centrality increases the pupil school performance by more than 7 percent of one standard deviation.

The Effect of Social Capital on the Choice to Use Sustainable Agricultural Practices

“…When detailed information is available about the characteristics of the individuals within the social networks, it may be possible to devise exclusion restrictions from that information (Calvó-Armengol, Patacchini, and Zenou, 2009). Such data sets are extremely rare.…”

Heterogeneous network games: Conflicting preferences

“…Our model differs from these for they are focused on strategic link formation and our analysis considers players are located in a fixed network. Several authors have also modeled games with strategic complements or substitutes on networks, see for example Angeletos and Pavan (2007), Ballester et al(2006), Ballester and Calvó-Armengol (2010), Bergemann and Morris (2009), Calvó-Armengol et al (2009), Bénabou (2008, Bramoullé and Kranton (2007), Ilkilic (2008), Glaeser and Scheinkman (2003), Moraga-Gonzalez (2001), andVives (1999). Our work belongs in this set of literature and complements it with the analysis of incomplete information and the characterization of the Bayesian-Nash equilibria.…”

The importance of family background and neighborhood effects as determinants of crime

“…One potential explanation for our small estimated neighborhood correlations is that our definition of neighborhoods is too broad, both in the geographical sense and in the sense that neighborhoods may not map well into peer groups. Alternatively, one might want to focus more on the schools that children attend (as in Gaviria and Raphael 2001, Calvó-Armengol et al 2009, and Liu et al 2012 or on close neighbors. Sariaslan et al (2013) study younger cohorts and, therefore, have access to more narrow measures of neighborhoods.…”