Friendship Network in the Classroom: Parent Bias and Peer Effects

Fabio Landini (), Natalia Montinari (), Paolo Pin and Marco Piovesan
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Fabio Landini: Bocconi University, Postal: Bocconi University, MEDAlics/CRIOS, Via Guglielmo Roenteng 1, 20136 Milan, Italy,, http://www.fabiolandini.altervista.org/

No 2014:19, Working Papers from Lund University, Department of Economics

Abstract: We interview both parents and their children enrolled in six primary schools in the district of Treviso (Italy). We study the structural differences between the children network of friends reported by children and the one elicited asking their parents. We find that the parents’ network has a bias: parents expect peer effects on school achievement to be stronger than what they really are. Thus, parents of low-performing students report their children to be friends of high-performing students. Our numerical simulations indicate that when this bias is combined with a bias on how some children target friends, then there is a multiplier effect on the expected school achievement.

Keywords: social networks; primary school; friendships; parents’ bias; homophily; peer effects; Bonacich centrality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D85 I21 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 42 pages
Date: 2014-05-18
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu, nep-net, nep-soc and nep-ure
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http://project.nek.lu.se/publications/workpap/papers/wp14_19.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Friendship Network in the Classroom: Parents Bias and Peer Effects (2014)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hhs:lunewp:2014_019

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