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The Effect of Classmate Characteristics on Individual Outcomes: Evidence from the Add Health

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Author Info
Robert Bifulco (Syracuse University)
Jason M. Fletcher (Yale University)
Stephen L. Ross (University of Connecticut)

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Abstract

We use data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) to examine the effects of classmate characteristics on economic and social outcomes of students. The unique structure of the Add Health allows us to estimate these effects using comparisons across cohorts within schools, and to examine a wider range of outcomes than other studies that have used this identification strategy. This strategy yields variation in cohort composition that is uncorrelated with student observables suggesting that our estimates are not biased by the selection of students into schools or grades based on classmate characteristics. We find that increases in the percent of classmates whose mother is college educated has significant, desirable effects on educational attainment and substance use. We find no evidence that in-school achievement, student attitudes, or behaviors serve as mechanisms for this effect. The percent of students from disadvantaged minority groups does not show any negative effects on the post-secondary outcomes we examine, but is associated with students reporting less caring student-teacher relationships and increased prevalence of some undesirable student behaviors during high school.

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File URL: http://www.econ.uconn.edu/working/2009-15.pdf
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Publisher Info
Paper provided by University of Connecticut, Department of Economics in its series Working papers with number 2009-15.

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Length: 49 pages
Date of creation: Jun 2009
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:uct:uconnp:2009-15

Note: The authors would like to thank Joseph Altonji, Barry Hirsch, David Figlio, Erdal Tekin, Spencer Banzhaf, Tom Downes, Vida Maralani, Randy Reback, and Jonah Rockoff who provided comments on the work presented here, as well as participants at the Syracuse University education policy seminar, the Tufts economics department seminar, the Yale labor economics lunch and Center for Research on Inequalities and the Life Course (CIQLE) seminar, the Georgia State University labor/health economics seminar, and the New York Federal Reserve Education Seminar. This research uses data from Add Health, a program project designed by J. Richard Udry, Peter S. Bearman, and Kathleen Mullan Harris, and funded by a grant P01-HD31921 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, with cooperative funding from 17 other agencies. Special acknowledgment is due Ronald R. Rindfuss and Barbara Entwisle for assistance in the original design. Persons interested in obtaining data files from Add Health should contact Add Health, Carolina Population Center, 123 W. Franklin Street, Chapel Hill, NC 27516-2524 (addhealth@unc.edu).
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Postal: University of Connecticut 341 Mansfield Road, Unit 1063 Storrs, CT 06269-1063
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Fax: (860) 486-4463
Web page: http://www.econ.uconn.edu/
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Related research
Keywords: Education; Peer Effects; Cohort Study; Substance Abuse;

Other versions of this item:

Find related papers by JEL classification:
I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
I19 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Other
J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities and Races; Non-labor Discrimination

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References listed on IDEAS
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  1. Victor Lavy & M. Daniele Paserman & Analia Schlosser, 2008. "Inside the Black of Box of Ability Peer Effects: Evidence from Variation in the Proportion of Low Achievers in the Classroom," NBER Working Papers 14415, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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