What Makes a Classmate a Peer? Examining Which Peers Matter in NYC Elementary Schools

William Horrace, Hyunseok Jung, Jonathan L. Pressler and Amy Schwartz
Additional contact information
Hyunseok Jung: University of Arkansas
Jonathan L. Pressler: Saint Louis University

No 241, Center for Policy Research Working Papers from Center for Policy Research, Maxwell School, Syracuse University

Abstract: We identify and estimate the effects of student-level social spillovers on standardized test performance in New York City (NYC) elementary schools. We leverage student demographic data to construct within classroom social networks based on shared student characteristics, such as a gender or ethnicity. Rather than aggregate shared characteristics into a single network matrix, we specify additively separate network matrices for each shared characteristic and estimate city-wide peer effects for each one. Conditional on sharing a classroom, we find that the most important student peer effects are shared ethnicity, gender, and primary language spoken at home. Identification of the model is discussed.

Keywords: Peer Effect; Network; Homophily; Education (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C31 I21 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 56 pages
Date: 2021-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-net, nep-soc and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/302/ (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: What Makes a Classmate a Peer? Examining which peers matter in NYC elementary schools (2022)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:max:cprwps:241

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Center for Policy Research Working Papers from Center for Policy Research, Maxwell School, Syracuse University 426 Eggers Hall, Syracuse, New York USA 13244-1020. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Katrina Fiacchi (kfiacchi@syr.edu).