Friendship Relations in the School Class and Adult Economic Attainment

Andrea Galeotti and Gerrit Müller ()
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Gerrit Müller: Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam

No 05-032/3, Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers from Tinbergen Institute

Abstract: We analyze the impact of adolescents' friendship relations in their final-year class of highschool on subsequent labor market success. Based on a typology of network positions we locateeach student within the social system of the school class as either: an isolate, a sycophant,a broker or a receiver. These positions identify individuals' social standing within the groupof classmates and proxy for their interpersonal behavior and social competencies. We offerempirical evidence that differential social standing in adolescence predicts large and persistent earnings disparities over the entire life course. The estimated wage premia and penaltiesdo not appear to be substantially confounded by measures of family and school resources,and materialize largely independent of differences in cognitive abilities, grade rank in class orfriends' characteristics. A moderate share of the earnings inequalities is mediated by differential post-secondary human and social capital investment. From a conceptual point of view, wecontribute an application of egocentered network methods within conventional labor economicsurvey research.

Keywords: friendship ties; social capital; earnings (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A14 I21 J31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2005-03-23, Revised 2005-08-08
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Friendship Relations in the School Class and Adult Economic Attainment (2005)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:tin:wpaper:20050032

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