IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/somere/v45y2016i4p635-650.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

On the Directionality Test of Peer Effects in Social Networks

Author

Listed:
  • Weihua An

Abstract

One interesting idea in social network analysis is the directionality test that utilizes the directions of social ties to help identify peer effects. The null hypothesis of the test is that if contextual factors are the only force that affects peer outcomes, the estimated peer effects should not differ, if the directions of social ties are reversed. In this article, I statistically formalize this test and investigate its properties under various scenarios. In particular, I point out the validity of the test is contingent on the presence of peer selection, sampling error, and simultaneity bias. I also outline several methods that can help provide causal estimates of peer effects in social networks.

Suggested Citation

  • Weihua An, 2016. "On the Directionality Test of Peer Effects in Social Networks," Sociological Methods & Research, , vol. 45(4), pages 635-650, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:somere:v:45:y:2016:i:4:p:635-650
    DOI: 10.1177/0049124115582271
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0049124115582271
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0049124115582271?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Andreas Ammermueller & Jörn-Steffen Pischke, 2009. "Peer Effects in European Primary Schools: Evidence from the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 27(3), pages 315-348, July.
    2. Schmidt, Peter & Strauss, Robert P, 1975. "Estimation of Models with Jointly Dependent Qualitative Variables: A Simultaneous Logit Approach," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 43(4), pages 745-755, July.
    3. Fowler, J.H. & Christakis, N.A., 2008. "Estimating peer effects on health in social networks: A response to Cohen-Cole and Fletcher; and Trogdon, Nonnemaker, and Pais," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(5), pages 1400-1405, September.
    4. Lyons Russell, 2011. "The Spread of Evidence-Poor Medicine via Flawed Social-Network Analysis," Statistics, Politics and Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 2(1), pages 1-29, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jonathan Pratschke & Giovanni Abbiati, 2023. "“Like with like” or “do like?” Modeling peer effects in the classroom," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 104(3), pages 265-280, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chih‐Sheng Hsieh & Hans van Kippersluis, 2018. "Smoking initiation: Peers and personality," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 9(2), pages 825-863, July.
    2. Huesch, Marco D., 2011. "Is blood thicker than water? Peer effects in stent utilization among Floridian cardiologists," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 73(12), pages 1756-1765.
    3. Todd D. Gerarden & Richard G. Newell & Robert N. Stavins, 2017. "Assessing the Energy-Efficiency Gap," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 55(4), pages 1486-1525, December.
    4. Adam S. Booij & Edwin Leuven & Hessel Oosterbeek, 2017. "Ability Peer Effects in University: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 84(2), pages 547-578.
    5. Steven N. Durlauf & Yannis M. Ioannides, 2010. "Social Interactions," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 2(1), pages 451-478, September.
    6. Loh, Chung-Ping A. & Li, Qiang, 2013. "Peer effects in adolescent bodyweight: Evidence from rural China," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 35-44.
    7. van Elk, Roel & van der Steeg, Marc & Webbink, Dinand, 2011. "Does the timing of tracking affect higher education completion?," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 1009-1021, October.
    8. Sönke Hendrik Matthewes, 2020. "Better together? Heterogeneous effects of tracking on student achievement," CEP Discussion Papers dp1706.pdf, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    9. Calsamiglia, Caterina & Loviglio, Annalisa, 2019. "Grading on a curve: When having good peers is not good," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    10. Carrasco, Raquel, 2001. "Binary Choice with Binary Endogenous Regressors in Panel Data: Estimating the Effect of Fertility on Female Labor Participation," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 19(4), pages 385-394, October.
    11. Yakusheva, Olga & Kapinos, Kandice & Weiss, Marianne, 2011. "Peer effects and the Freshman 15: Evidence from a natural experiment," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 9(2), pages 119-132, March.
    12. Annalisa Loviglio, 2023. "School Quality Beyond Test Scores: the Role of Schools in Shaping Educational Outcomes," Working Papers wp1184, Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Universita' di Bologna.
    13. Halliday, Timothy J. & Kwak, Sally, 2009. "Weight gain in adolescents and their peers," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 7(2), pages 181-190, July.
    14. Jones, Todd R. & Kofoed, Michael S., 2020. "Do peers influence occupational preferences? Evidence from randomly-assigned peer groups at West Point," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    15. INOUE Atsushi & TANAKA Ryuichi, 2023. "The Rank of Socioeconomic Status within a Class and the Incidence of School Bullying and School Absence," Discussion papers 23003, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    16. Laura Pagani & Giovanni Pica, 2021. "A Peer Like Me? Early Exposure to High Achievers in Math and Later Educational Outcomes," Development Working Papers 476, Centro Studi Luca d'Agliano, University of Milano.
    17. Yao, Yuxin & Ohinata, Asako & van Ours, Jan, 2016. "The Education Consequences of Language Proficiency for Young Children," Other publications TiSEM 55d080a9-861e-4372-b542-e, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    18. Victor Lavy & Analia Schlosser, 2011. "Mechanisms and Impacts of Gender Peer Effects at School," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 3(2), pages 1-33, April.
    19. Verena Wondratschek & Karin Edmark & Markus Frolich, 2013. "The Short- and Long-term Effects of School Choice on Student Outcomes - Evidence from a School Choice Reform in Sweden," Annals of Economics and Statistics, GENES, issue 111-112, pages 71-101.
    20. Hikaru Kawarazaki & Minhaj Mahmud & Yasuyuki Sawada & Mai Seki, 2020. "Haste Makes No Waste: Peer Effects of a Speed Competition on Math Score," CIRJE F-Series CIRJE-F-1151, CIRJE, Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:somere:v:45:y:2016:i:4:p:635-650. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.