Short-Term Events, Long-Term Friends? Freshman Orientation Peers and Academic Performance

Raphael Brade

No 11046, CESifo Working Paper Series from CESifo

Abstract: Many organizations use onboarding programs to assist newcomers with the transition process. Are brief social interactions during such programs sufficient to create lasting performance spillovers? Exploiting quasi-random assignment to groups of a two-day freshman orientation program for university students, I find that higher ability peers generate positive effects even three years later. A one SD increase in peer ability improves the academic performance of business administration students by 0.05 to 0.08 SD. I provide evidence that the effects result from the formation of lasting social ties, and that performance spillovers are moderated by the broader social environment of the organization.

Keywords: peer effects; peer ability; academic performance; higher education; Freshman orientation; quasi-experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I21 I23 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu and nep-ure
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