IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cpr/ceprdp/8477.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Peer Effects in Education, Sport, and Screen Activities: Local Aggregate or Local Average?

Author

Listed:
  • Zenou, Yves
  • Patacchini, Eleonora
  • Liu, Xiaodong

Abstract

We develop two different social network models with different economic foundations. In the local-aggregate model, it is the sum of friends' efforts in some activity that affects the utility of each individual while, in the local-average model, it is costly to deviate from the average effort of friends. Even though the two models are fundamentally different in terms of behavioral foundation, their implications in terms of Nash equilibrium are relatively close since only the adjacency (social interaction) matrix differs in equilibrium, one being the row-normalized version of the other. We test these alternative mechanisms of social interactions to study peer effects in education, sport and screen activities for adolescents in the United States using the AddHealth data. We extend Kelejian's (2008) J test for spatial econometric models helping differentiate between these two behavioral models. We find that peer effects are not significant for screen activities (like e.g. video games). On the contrary, for sport activities, we find that students are mostly influenced by the aggregate activity of their friends (local-aggregate model) while, for education, we show that both the aggregate performance at school of friends and conformism matter, even though the magnitude of the effect is higher for the latter.

Suggested Citation

  • Zenou, Yves & Patacchini, Eleonora & Liu, Xiaodong, 2011. "Peer Effects in Education, Sport, and Screen Activities: Local Aggregate or Local Average?," CEPR Discussion Papers 8477, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:8477
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://cepr.org/publications/DP8477
    Download Restriction: CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fershtman, Chaim & Weiss, Yoram, 1998. "Social rewards, externalities and stable preferences," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(1), pages 53-73, October.
    2. Davidson, Russell & MacKinnon, James G, 1981. "Several Tests for Model Specification in the Presence of Alternative Hypotheses," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 49(3), pages 781-793, May.
    3. Bramoullé, Yann & Djebbari, Habiba & Fortin, Bernard, 2009. "Identification of peer effects through social networks," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 150(1), pages 41-55, May.
    4. Patacchini, Eleonora & Zenou, Yves, 2008. "The strength of weak ties in crime," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(2), pages 209-236, February.
    5. Vincent Boucher & Yann Bramoullé & Habiba Djebbari & Bernard Fortin, 2014. "Do Peers Affect Student Achievement? Evidence From Canada Using Group Size Variation," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(1), pages 91-109, January.
    6. Kelejian, Harry H & Prucha, Ingmar R, 1998. "A Generalized Spatial Two-Stage Least Squares Procedure for Estimating a Spatial Autoregressive Model with Autoregressive Disturbances," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 99-121, July.
    7. Coralio Ballester & Antoni Calvó-Armengol & Yves Zenou, 2006. "Who's Who in Networks. Wanted: The Key Player," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 74(5), pages 1403-1417, September.
    8. Andrew E. Clark & Youenn Loheac, 2003. "It wasn't me, It was them! A Study of Social Influence in Risky Behaviour by Adolescents," DELTA Working Papers 2003-01, DELTA (Ecole normale supérieure).
    9. Harminder Battu & McDonald Mwale & Yves Zenou, 2007. "Oppositional identities and the labor market," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 20(3), pages 643-667, July.
    10. Sanjeev Goyal, 2007. "Introduction to Connections: An Introduction to the Economics of Networks," Introductory Chapters, in: Connections: An Introduction to the Economics of Networks, Princeton University Press.
    11. George A. Akerlof, 1997. "Social Distance and Social Decisions," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 65(5), pages 1005-1028, September.
    12. repec:cup:cbooks:9780521818728 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Antoni Calvó-Armengol & Eleonora Patacchini & Yves Zenou, 2009. "Peer Effects and Social Networks in Education," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 76(4), pages 1239-1267.
    14. repec:cup:cbooks:9780521844413 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Coralio Ballester & Antoni Calvó-Armengol & Yves Zenou, 2010. "Delinquent Networks," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 8(1), pages 34-61, March.
    16. Clark, Andrew E. & Loheac, Youenn, 2007. ""It wasn't me, it was them!" Social influence in risky behavior by adolescents," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(4), pages 763-784, July.
    17. Yannis M. Ioannides & Linda Datcher Loury, 2004. "Job Information Networks, Neighborhood Effects, and Inequality," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 42(4), pages 1056-1093, December.
    18. James H. Stock & Motohiro Yogo, 2002. "Testing for Weak Instruments in Linear IV Regression," NBER Technical Working Papers 0284, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. repec:cup:cbooks:9780521524131 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Liu, Xiaodong & Lee, Lung-fei, 2010. "GMM estimation of social interaction models with centrality," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 159(1), pages 99-115, November.
    21. Stock, James H & Wright, Jonathan H & Yogo, Motohiro, 2002. "A Survey of Weak Instruments and Weak Identification in Generalized Method of Moments," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 20(4), pages 518-529, October.
    22. Bernheim, B Douglas, 1994. "A Theory of Conformity," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 102(5), pages 841-877, October.
    23. Eli Berman, 2000. "Sect, Subsidy, and Sacrifice: An Economist's View of Ultra-Orthodox Jews," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 115(3), pages 905-953.
    24. Andrea Galeotti & Sanjeev Goyal & Matthew O. Jackson & Fernando Vega-Redondo & Leeat Yariv, 2010. "Network Games," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 77(1), pages 218-244.
    25. repec:cup:cbooks:9780521818742 is not listed on IDEAS
    26. Laurence R. Iannaccone, 1998. "Introduction to the Economics of Religion," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 36(3), pages 1465-1495, September.
    27. repec:cup:cbooks:9780521524117 is not listed on IDEAS
    28. Lee, Lung-Fei, 2002. "Consistency And Efficiency Of Least Squares Estimation For Mixed Regressive, Spatial Autoregressive Models," Econometric Theory, Cambridge University Press, vol. 18(2), pages 252-277, April.
    29. Kelejian, Harry H. & Prucha, Ingmar R., 2007. "The relative efficiencies of various predictors in spatial econometric models containing spatial lags," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 363-374, May.
    30. Christian Ghiglino & Sanjeev Goyal, 2010. "Keeping Up with the Neighbors: Social Interaction in a Market Economy," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 8(1), pages 90-119, March.
    31. Kandel, Eugene & Lazear, Edward P, 1992. "Peer Pressure and Partnerships," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 100(4), pages 801-817, August.
    32. Davidson, Russell & MacKinnon, James G., 1993. "Estimation and Inference in Econometrics," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195060119, Decembrie.
    33. Kelejian, Harry H. & Piras, Gianfranco, 2011. "An extension of Kelejian's J-test for non-nested spatial models," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(3), pages 281-292, May.
    34. George A. Akerlof, 1980. "A Theory of Social Custom, of which Unemployment may be One Consequence," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 94(4), pages 749-775.
    35. Eleonora Patacchini & Yves Zenou, 2012. "Juvenile Delinquency and Conformism," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 28(1), pages 1-31.
    36. repec:cup:cbooks:9780521818735 is not listed on IDEAS
    37. Laurence R. Iannaccone, 1998. "Corrigenda [Introduction to the Economics of Religion]," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 36(4), pages 1941-1941, December.
    38. repec:cup:cbooks:9780521524124 is not listed on IDEAS
    39. Clark, Andrew E. & Oswald, Andrew J., 1998. "Comparison-concave utility and following behaviour in social and economic settings," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(1), pages 133-155, October.
    40. Yannis M. Ioannides, 2012. "From Neighborhoods to Nations: The Economics of Social Interactions," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 9892.
    41. de Martí Beltran, Joan, 2009. "Matthew O. Jackson, Social and Economic Networks , Princeton University Press (2008)," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(5), pages 644-645, September.
    42. Lee, Lung-fei, 2007. "GMM and 2SLS estimation of mixed regressive, spatial autoregressive models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 137(2), pages 489-514, April.
    43. Mathias Dewatripont & Lars Peter Hansen & Stephen Turnovsky, 2003. "Advances in economics and econometrics :theory and applications," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/9557, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    44. Xu Lin, 2010. "Identifying Peer Effects in Student Academic Achievement by Spatial Autoregressive Models with Group Unobservables," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 28(4), pages 825-860, October.
    45. Harry Kelejian, 2008. "A spatial J-test for model specification against a single or a set of non-nested alternatives," Letters in Spatial and Resource Sciences, Springer, vol. 1(1), pages 3-11, April.
    46. Lee, Lung-fei & Liu, Xiaodong, 2010. "Efficient Gmm Estimation Of High Order Spatial Autoregressive Models With Autoregressive Disturbances," Econometric Theory, Cambridge University Press, vol. 26(1), pages 187-230, February.
    47. Bramoulle, Yann & Kranton, Rachel, 2007. "Public goods in networks," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 135(1), pages 478-494, July.
    48. Lung-fei Lee, 2003. "Best Spatial Two-Stage Least Squares Estimators for a Spatial Autoregressive Model with Autoregressive Disturbances," Econometric Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(4), pages 307-335.
    49. Lung-fei Lee & Xiaodong Liu & Xu Lin, 2010. "Specification and estimation of social interaction models with network structures," Econometrics Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 13(2), pages 145-176, July.
    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. Jackson, Matthew O. & Zenou, Yves, 2015. "Games on Networks," Handbook of Game Theory with Economic Applications,, Elsevier.
    2. Christian Ghiglino, 2011. "When Veblen meets Krugman," 2011 Meeting Papers 768, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    3. Han, Xiaoyi & Lee, Lung-fei, 2013. "Model selection using J-test for the spatial autoregressive model vs. the matrix exponential spatial model," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(2), pages 250-271.
    4. Eleonora Patacchini & Edoardo Rainone, 2014. "The Word on Banking - Social Ties, Trust, and the Adoption of Financial Products," EIEF Working Papers Series 1404, Einaudi Institute for Economics and Finance (EIEF), revised Jul 2014.
    5. Boucher, Vincent, 2016. "Conformism and self-selection in social networks," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 30-44.
    6. Kim, Changjoo & Parent, Olivier, 2016. "Modeling individual travel behaviors based on intra-household interactions," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 1-11.
    7. David M. Brasington & Olivier Parent, 2017. "Public school consolidation: a partial observability spatial bivariate probit approach," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 180(2), pages 633-656, February.
    8. Christian Ghiglino & Antonella Nocco, 2017. "When Veblen meets Krugman: social network and city dynamics," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 63(2), pages 431-470, February.
    9. Carlos Medina & Jorge Andrés Tamayo & Christian Posso, 2013. "The Effect of Adult Criminals´ Spillovers On the Likelihood of Youths Becoming Criminals," Borradores de Economia 10461, Banco de la Republica.
    10. Aliaksandr Amialchuk & Ales Kotalik, 2016. "Do Your School Mates Influence How Long You Game? Evidence from the U.S," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(8), pages 1-16, August.
    11. Christian Ghiglino, 2011. "When Veblen meets Krugman," 2011 Meeting Papers 768, Society for Economic Dynamics.

    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. Zenou, Yves & Patacchini, Eleonora & Liu, Xiaodong, 2013. "Peer Effects: Social Multiplier or Social Norms?," CEPR Discussion Papers 9366, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    2. Liu, Xiaodong & Patacchini, Eleonora & Zenou, Yves, 2014. "Endogenous peer effects: local aggregate or local average?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 39-59.
    3. Topa, Giorgio & Zenou, Yves, 2015. "Neighborhood and Network Effects," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: Gilles Duranton & J. V. Henderson & William C. Strange (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 561-624, Elsevier.
    4. Liu, Xiaodong & Patacchini, Eleonora & Zenou, Yves & Lee, Lung-Fei, 2011. "Criminal Networks: Who is the Key Player?," Research Papers in Economics 2011:7, Stockholm University, Department of Economics.
    5. Patacchini, Eleonora & Venanzoni, Giuseppe, 2014. "Peer effects in the demand for housing quality," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 6-17.
    6. Ushchev, Philip & Zenou, Yves, 2020. "Social norms in networks," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 185(C).
    7. Jackson, Matthew O. & Zenou, Yves, 2015. "Games on Networks," Handbook of Game Theory with Economic Applications,, Elsevier.
    8. Eleonora Patacchini & Yves Zenou, 2012. "Juvenile Delinquency and Conformism," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 28(1), pages 1-31.
    9. Claudia Olivetti & Eleonora Patacchini & Yves Zenou, 2020. "Mothers, Peers, and Gender-Role Identity," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 18(1), pages 266-301.
    10. Patacchini, Eleonora & Rainone, Edoardo & Zenou, Yves, 2011. "Dynamic Aspects of Teenage Friendships and Educational Attainment," Research Papers in Economics 2011:4, Stockholm University, Department of Economics.
    11. Zenou, Yves & Patacchini, Eleonora & Rainone, Edoardo, 2012. "Student Networks and Long-Run Educational Outcomes: The Strength of Strong Ties," CEPR Discussion Papers 9149, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    12. Zenou, Yves & Chen, Ying-Ju & Zhou, Junjie, 2015. "Multiple Activities for Socially-Connected Criminals," CEPR Discussion Papers 10709, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    13. Gibbons, Steve & Overman, Henry G. & Patacchini, Eleonora, 2015. "Spatial Methods," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: Gilles Duranton & J. V. Henderson & William C. Strange (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 115-168, Elsevier.
    14. Chih‐Sheng Hsieh & Lung‐Fei Lee & Vincent Boucher, 2020. "Specification and estimation of network formation and network interaction models with the exponential probability distribution," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 11(4), pages 1349-1390, November.
    15. Patacchini, Eleonora & Rainone, Edoardo & Zenou, Yves, 2017. "Heterogeneous peer effects in education," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 190-227.
    16. de Marti, Joan & Zenou, Yves, 2009. "Social Networks," Working Paper Series 816, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    17. Zenou, Yves & Lindquist, Matthew & Sauermann, Jan, 2015. "Network Effects on Worker Productivity," CEPR Discussion Papers 10928, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    18. Debarsy, Nicolas & Ertur, Cem, 2019. "Interaction matrix selection in spatial autoregressive models with an application to growth theory," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 49-69.
    19. Patacchini, Eleonora & Arduini, Tiziano, 2016. "Residential choices of young Americans," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 69-81.
    20. Hsieh, Chih-Sheng & Lin, Xu, 2017. "Gender and racial peer effects with endogenous network formation," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 135-147.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Conformism; Econometrics of networks; Peer effects; Social Networks;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • A14 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Sociology of Economics
    • D85 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Network Formation
    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:cpr:ceprdp:8477. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cepr.org .

    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.