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Peer delinquency and student achievement in middle school

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  • Ahn, Tom
  • Trogdon, Justin G.

Abstract

This paper studies the relationship between peer delinquency and student achievement in North Carolina middle schools. We define severity of the delinquent act using the associated punishment and calculate the average exposure to peer delinquency. Our identification strategy uses this new measure, a rich set of control variables including student, peer, and teacher characteristics, and a novel instrumental variable that captures the indirect social network impact of peer misbehavior. The instrument uses lagged delinquent behavior from students who went to 5th grade with peers of the index student's current 6th grade peers but not the index student him/herself. A 10 percent increase in the number of “major” incidents that a student at an average North Carolina school is exposed to was associated with a 6.2 percent of a standard deviation decrease in his or her standardized math score.

Suggested Citation

  • Ahn, Tom & Trogdon, Justin G., 2017. "Peer delinquency and student achievement in middle school," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 192-217.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:labeco:v:44:y:2017:i:c:p:192-217
    DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2017.01.006
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    4. Songman Kang, 2023. "The Effect of High School Peers on Juvenile Delinquency," Korean Economic Review, Korean Economic Association, vol. 39, pages 137-173.
    5. Daniel Borbely & Markus Gehrsitz & Stuart McIntyre & Gennaro Rossi, 2022. "Does the Provision of Universal Free School Meals Improve School Attendance and Behaviour?," Working Papers 22-5, University of Strathclyde Business School, Department of Economics.
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    7. Wang, Haining & Cheng, Zhiming & Smyth, Russell, 2018. "Do migrant students affect local students’ academic achievements in urban China?," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 64-77.
    8. Wang, Haining & Zhu, Rong, 2021. "Social spillovers of China’s left-behind children in the classroom," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).

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