Enrolling at university and the social influence of peers

Pistolesi Nicolas ()
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Pistolesi Nicolas: Universite Toulouse 1 Capitole Toulouse (Toulouse School of Economics), France

IZA Journal of Labor Economics, 2022, vol. 11, issue 1, 26

Abstract: This article studies peer effects on the decision to enroll at university. To determine the social influence of peers, we use a measure encompassing the two major dimensions of social influence in the classroom: the ability and capacity of peers to exchange information about study options. This paper uses French administrative data on the universe of first year applicants to a single university over seven consecutive cohorts. We exploit idiosyncratic variations in the proportion of peers advised to change their educational choice. We find that our variable of interest has a small but negative and significant effect on the individual decision to attend university and observe stronger peer effects among groups of students of similar gender or socio-economic background. We also find a weaker impact of the proportion of peers advised to change their educational choice on the individuals of higher level of academic ability.

Keywords: peer effects; higher education; university enrollment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I21 I23 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:vrs:izajle:v:11:y:2022:i:1:p:26:n:1

DOI: 10.2478/izajole-2022-0001

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