Scandinavian Working Papers in Economics
Working Paper Series,
Research Institute of Industrial Economics
No 645: Peer Effects and Social Networks in Education and Crime
Antoni Calvó-Armengol, Eleonora Patacchini and Yves Zenou ()
Additional contact information
Antoni Calvó-Armengol: ICREA and Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Postal: Department of Economics and Economic History, Edifici B, 08193 Bellaterra (Barcelona), Spain
Eleonora Patacchini: Università di Roma "La Sapienza", Postal: Facoltà di Scienze Statistiche, Dipartimento di Contabilità Nazionale e Analisi dei Processi Sociali, P. le Aldo Moro, 5, 00185 Rome, Italy
Yves Zenou: The Research Institute of Industrial Economics, Postal: P.O. Box 55665, SE-102 15 Stockholm, Sweden
Abstract: This paper studies whether structural properties of friendship networks affect individual outcomes in education and crime. We first develop a model that shows that, at the Nash equilibrium, the outcome of each individual embedded in a network is proportional to her Bonacich centrality measure. This measure takes into account both direct and indirect friends of each individual but puts less weight to her distant friends. Using a very detailed dataset of adolescent friendship networks, we show that, after controlling for observable individual characteristics and unobservable network specific factors, the individual's position in a network (as measured by her Bonacich centrality) is a key determinant of her level of activity. A standard deviation increase in the Bonocich centrality increases the level of individual delinquency by 45% of one standard deviation and the pupil school performance by 34% of one standard deviation.
Keywords: Centrality Measure; Peer Influence; Network Structure; Delinquency; School Performance
37 pages, July 5, 2005
Full text files
WP645.pdf
Questions (including download problems) about the papers in this series should be directed to Elisabeth Gustafsson ()
Report other problems with accessing this service to Sune Karlsson ().
RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:0645This page generated on 2024-09-13 22:15:48.