Social networks and college performance: Evidence from dining data

Darius Martin, Adam C. Wright and John M. Krieg

Economics of Education Review, 2020, vol. 79, issue C

Abstract: We investigate the effect of friends in class on academic performance in college using unique data on dining card swipes at a medium-sized public university. We define friendships by academic quarter as repeated meetings among students in the same dining hall. To identify the impact of having a friend in class, we employ models with student- and class-level fixed effects and find having a friend in class has large and positive effects on grades. Our analysis of heterogeneous friend effects reveals that the positive friend effect exists across all types of friend characteristics, suggesting the unconditional importance of social connections.

Keywords: social interactions; friendships; heterogeneous peer effects; higher education (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I21 I23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecoedu:v:79:y:2020:i:c:s0272775720305495

DOI: 10.1016/j.econedurev.2020.102063

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