The Role of Social Networks and Peer Effects in Education Transmission

Sebastian Bervoets, Antoni Calvó-Armengol and Yves Zenou

No 1209, AMSE Working Papers from Aix-Marseille School of Economics, France

Abstract: We propose a dynastic model in which individuals are born in an educated or uneducated environment that they inherit from their parents. We study the role of social networks on the correlation in the parent-child educational status independent of any parent-child interaction. We show that the network reduces the intergenerational correlation, promotes social mobility and increases the average education level in the population. We also show that a planner that encourages social mobility also reduces social welfare, hence facing a tradeoff between these two objectives. When individuals choose the optimal level of social mobility, those born in an uneducated environment always want to leave their environment while the reverse occurs for individuals born in an educated environment.

Keywords: Social mobility; strong and weak ties; intergenerational correlation; education. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I24 J13 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 38 pages
Date: 2012-03-30
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu, nep-evo, nep-net, nep-soc and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Related works:
Working Paper: The Role of Social Networks and Peer Effects in Education Transmission (2012)
Working Paper: The Role of Social Networks and Peer Effects in Education Transmission (2012)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aim:wpaimx:1209

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