The Effect of School and Neighborhood Peers on Achievement, Misbehavior, and Adult Crime

Stephen B. Billings and Mark Hoekstra

Journal of Labor Economics, 2023, vol. 41, issue 3, 643 - 685

Abstract: This paper assesses the importance of school and neighborhood peers in shaping educational achievement, adolescent misbehavior, and adult crime. Using cohort variation within Charlotte-Mecklenburg County, we focus on the impact of peers whose parents have been arrested, which is strongly and independently predictive of worse outcomes. Results indicate that a 5 percentage point increase in school peers linked to parental arrest reduces educational achievement by 0.016 standard deviations and increases adult arrest rates by 5%. Additional evidence indicates that peer effects are primarily driven by interactions in schools rather than in neighborhoods.

Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Downloads: (external link)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/720323 (application/pdf)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/720323 (text/html)
Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.

Related works:
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:ucp:jlabec:doi:10.1086/720323

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of Labor Economics from University of Chicago Press
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Journals Division ().