Estimation of Peer Effects with Predicted Social Ties: Evidence from Two Universities in Brazil and Russia

Oleg Poldin, Tania Simoes (), Marcelo Knobel () and Maria Yudkevich
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Tania Simoes: University of Campinas (Unicamp).
Marcelo Knobel: University of Campinas (Unicamp).

HSE Working papers from National Research University Higher School of Economics

Abstract: Social interactions with peers during learning have a significant impact on university students’ academic achievement. As social ties are voluntary, an empirical estimation of peer effects is exposed to a potential endogeneity problem. To overcome this issue, we propose to define the peer group of an individual as their predicted friends. The specific features of the learning environment in higher education institutions may affect dimensions along which friendship ties form. To test the presence of peer effects in different educational and cultural contexts, we use data on students studying in two universities located in two different countries, Brazil and Russia. We assume that friendship is affected by homophily in student attributes, such as having the same region of origin, the same gender, and sharing the same study group. In both institutions, we find positive externalities from having high-ability peers.

Keywords: peer effects; academic achievement; social networks (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I21 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 22 pages
Date: 2015
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cis, nep-edu, nep-lam, nep-soc and nep-ure
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published in WP BRP Series: Education / EDU, November 2015, pages 1-22

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hig:wpaper:30edu2015

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