The Effect of Classmate Characteristics on Individual Outcomes: Evidence from the Add Health

Robert Bifulco, Jason Fletcher and Stephen Ross
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Robert Bifulco: Syracuse University

No 2009-15, Working papers from University of Connecticut, Department of Economics

Abstract: We use data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) to examine the effects of classmate characteristics on economic and social outcomes of students. The unique structure of the Add Health allows us to estimate these effects using comparisons across cohorts within schools, and to examine a wider range of outcomes than other studies that have used this identification strategy. This strategy yields variation in cohort composition that is uncorrelated with student observables suggesting that our estimates are not biased by the selection of students into schools or grades based on classmate characteristics. We find that increases in the percent of classmates whose mother is college educated has significant, desirable effects on educational attainment and substance use. We find no evidence that in-school achievement, student attitudes, or behaviors serve as mechanisms for this effect. The percent of students from disadvantaged minority groups does not show any negative effects on the post-secondary outcomes we examine, but is associated with students reporting less caring student-teacher relationships and increased prevalence of some undesirable student behaviors during high school.

Keywords: Education; Peer Effects; Cohort Study; Substance Abuse (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I19 I21 J13 J15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 49 pages
Date: 2009-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu, nep-lab, nep-neu and nep-ure
Note: The authors would like to thank Joseph Altonji, Barry Hirsch, David Figlio, Erdal Tekin, Spencer Banzhaf, Tom Downes, Vida Maralani, Randy Reback, and Jonah Rockoff who provided comments on the work presented here, as well as participants at the Syracuse University education policy seminar, the Tufts economics department seminar, the Yale labor economics lunch and Center for Research on Inequalities and the Life Course (CIQLE) seminar, the Georgia State University labor/health economics seminar, and the New York Federal Reserve Education Seminar. This research uses data from Add Health, a program project designed by J. Richard Udry, Peter S. Bearman, and Kathleen Mullan Harris, and funded by a grant P01-HD31921 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, with cooperative funding from 17 other agencies. Special acknowledgment is due Ronald R. Rindfuss and Barbara Entwisle for assistance in the original design. Persons interested in obtaining data files from Add Health should contact Add Health, Carolina Population Center, 123 W. Franklin Street, Chapel Hill, NC 27516-2524 (addhealth@unc.edu).
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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