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Effects of Childhood Peers on Personality Skills

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  • Feng, Shuaizhang
  • Kim, Jun Hyung
  • Yang, Zhe

Abstract

Despite extensive literature on peer effects, the role of peers on personality skill development remains poorly understood. We fill this gap by investigating the effects of having disadvantaged primary school peers, generated by random classroom assignment and parental migration for employment. We find that having disadvantaged peers significantly lowers conscientiousness, agreeableness, emotional stability, and social skill. The implied effects of a 10-15 percentage point change in the classroom proportion of disadvantaged peers are comparable to the effects of popular early childhood interventions. Furthermore, we find suggestive evidence that these effects are driven by the peers' personality skills.

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  • Feng, Shuaizhang & Kim, Jun Hyung & Yang, Zhe, 2021. "Effects of Childhood Peers on Personality Skills," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1004, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:glodps:1004
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    peer effect; noncognitive skill; left-behind children; human capital; Big-5;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • D62 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Externalities
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration

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