Peer effects on college choice: Evidence from affirmative action in China

This paper investigates how peer networks influence ethnic minority students’ participation in China’s affirmative action policies in higher education. Focusing on the Ethnic Minority Preparatory Classes (EMPC) program, which provides admissions advantages to ethnic minority students, we examine whether informal information transmission within peer networks affects program take-up. Using administrative data from Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region between 2014 and 2018, we define peers as ethnic minority students from the same high school and shared the same registered residence in the previous cohort. Leveraging a difference-in-differences strategy, we find that having at least one successfully admitted peer increases the likelihood of EMPC admission by around 2 percentage points (p.p.), a 17% increase relative to the baseline admission rate of 13%. Heterogeneity analyses show that male students and those in non-STEM tracks benefit more, with effects of up to 3 p.p. These findings remain robust across alternative peer definitions and cumulative exposure measures. Additional analyses using data from Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region further underscore the importance of peer networks in shaping information flows that influence the outcomes of affirmative action programs. These findings highlight the critical role of peer networks in reducing informational barriers and underscore the importance of peer group structure, student heterogeneity, and institutional context in shaping the effectiveness of affirmative action policies.