Gritty peers

Effrosyni Adamopoulou, Yaming Cao and Ezgi Kaya

No 25-002, ZEW Discussion Papers from ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research

Abstract: We use the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health to explore how high school peers' grit, a personality trait characterized by perseverance and passion, influences long-term outcomes approximately 15 years after high school. Exploiting random variation within schools across cohorts and the longitudinal nature of our data, we find t hat p eer g rit s ignificantly in creases fu ture earnings, especially for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. This implies that peer grit may help bridge socioeconomic gaps. We identify two key mechanisms: an increased likelihood of employment in jobs aligned with career goals and an increased resilience to difficulties. Additionally, peer grit leads to higher job satisfaction and asset accumulation. Thus, peer grit's effects extend beyond short-term educational performance and persist into adulthood.

Keywords: grit; peer effects; long-term outcomes; Add Health (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I24 J13 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/312578/1/1919160019.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Gritty Peers (2024)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:zewdip:312578

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in ZEW Discussion Papers from ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics ().