Social Interactions Through Space and Time: Evidence from College Enrollment and Academic Mobility

Sofoklis Goulas and Rigissa Megalokonomou

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: In the recent years, the importance of one's group of peers-be that friends, colleagues, neighbors- has been widely emphasized in the literature. In this paper, we ask whether individuals derive utility from conformity in college enrollment and academic mobility. We propose a new methodology in mitigating reflection and endogeneity issues in identifying social interactions. We exploit a special institutional setting, in which schools are very close to each other, allowing for students from different schools to interact. We investigate utility spillovers from the educational choices of students in consecutive cohorts. Spatial variation allows us to identify social interactions in groups of various sizes. Using a new dataset that spans the universe of high school graduates, we estimate general equilibrium effects of social interactions. We find positive and significant externalities in the decision to enrol in college and the decision to migrate to a different city among peers that belong to the same social group.

Keywords: college enrollment; social interactions; mobility; geography; reflection problem (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I26 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015-08-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu, nep-lma, nep-soc and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pra:mprapa:65882

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