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Social Interactions in High School: Lessons from an Earthquake

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Author Info
Piero Cipollone () (Bank of Italy)
Alfonso Rosolia () (Bank of Italy)

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Abstract

We provide new evidence on the impact of peer effects on the schooling decisions of teenagers. In November 1980 a major earthquake hit Southern Italy. In the aftermath, young men from certain towns were exempted from compulsory military service. We show that the exemption raised high school graduation rates of boys by more than 2 percentage points by comparing high school graduation rates of young exempt men and older not exempt men from the least damaged areas and men of the same age groups from nearby towns that were not hit by the quake. Similar comparisons show that graduation rates of young women in the affected areas rose by about 2 percentage points. Since in Italy women are not subject to drafting, we interpret these findings as evidence of social effects of the decision of teenage boys of staying longer in school on that of teenage girls. Our estimates suggest that an increase of 1 percentage point of male graduation rates raises female probability of completing high school by about 0.7-0.8 percentage points. A series of robustness checks, including comparisons across different age groups and with different definitions of the comparison areas, suggest that the rise was due to the earthquake-related exemption, rather than other factors.

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Paper provided by Bank of Italy, Economic Research Department in its series Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) with number 596.

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Date of creation: Sep 2006
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Handle: RePEc:bdi:wptemi:td_596_06

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Keywords: istruzione interazione sociale peer effects servizio militare obbligatorio

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
C23 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Models with Panel Data
C90 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - General

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  15. Piero Cipollone & Alfonso Rosolia, 2007. "Social Interactions in High School: Lessons from an Earthquake," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 97(3), pages 948-965, June.
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  25. Eric A. Hanushek & Ludger Wössmann, 2006. "Does Educational Tracking Affect Performance and Inequality? Differences- in-Differences Evidence Across Countries," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 116(510), pages C63-C76, 03. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  26. Michael Kremer & Edward Miguel & Rebecca Thornton, 2004. "Incentives to Learn," NBER Working Papers 10971, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Giacomo De Giorgi & Michele Pellizzari & Silvia Redaelli, 2007. "Be as Careful of the Books You Read as of the Company You Keep: Evidence on Peer Effects in Educational Choices," IZA Discussion Papers 2833, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
  2. Massimiliano Affinito & Matteo Piazza, 2008. "What are borders made of? An analysis of barriers to European banking integration," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 666, Bank of Italy, Economic Research Department. [Downloadable!]
  3. Andrea Mercatanti, 2008. "A likelihood-based analysis for relaxing the exclusion restriction in randomized experiments with imperfect compliance," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 683, Bank of Italy, Economic Research Department. [Downloadable!]
  4. Fabio Maccheroni & Massimo Marinacci & Aldo Rustichini & Marco Taboga, 2008. "Portfolio Selection with Monotone Mean-Variance Preferences," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 664, Bank of Italy, Economic Research Department. [Downloadable!]
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  5. Barbara M. Fraumeni & Marshall B. Reinsdorf & Brooks B. Robinson & Matthew P. Williams, 2008. "Price and Real Output Measures for the Education Function of Government: Exploratory Estimates for Primary & Secondary Education," NBER Working Papers 14099, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Piero Cipollone & Alfonso Rosolia, 2007. "Social Interactions in High School: Lessons from an Earthquake," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 97(3), pages 948-965, June.
    Other versions:
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