The Makings of a Peer: Evidence on Within-Classroom Heterogeneities in Peer Effects

This dissertation consists of three essays on peer effects in elementary school classrooms using data from New York City (NYC) public schools. Each chapter explores a different component of within-classroom interactions in order to build towards an understanding of what makes a peer relevant. The first chapter proxies for the social network using a set of shared characteristics (homophily). In this coauthored work, we are not interested in measuring the classroom peer effect, but rather we estimate and then rank each network\u27s effect on academic spillovers. This answers the question: which characteristics are socially important, and by how much? The second chapter uses a novel method to measure the social importance of classmates based on student proximity in the lunch line over the course of the school year. The result is a revealed friendship network which I use to estimate peer effects. To my knowledge, this is the first paper to measure the social importance of classmates and use this to estimate classroom peer effects. In the third chapter, I use reduced form models to test for the existence of obesity spillovers in elementary school classrooms. I find evidence of significant causal social effects in both BMI and exposure to overweight and obese students

A Survey on Studying the Social Networks of Students

Do studies show that physical and online students' social networks support education? Analyzing interactions between students in schools and universities can provide a wealth of information. Studies on students' social networks can help us understand their behavioral dynamics, the correlation between their friendships and academic performance, community and group formation, information diffusion, and so on. Educational goals and holistic development of students with various academic abilities and backgrounds can be achieved by incorporating the findings attained by the studies in terms of knowledge propagation in classroom and spread of delinquent behaviors. Moreover, we use Social Network Analysis (SNA) to identify isolated students, ascertain the group study culture, analyze the spreading of various habits like smoking, drinking, and so on. In this paper, we present a review of the research showing how analysis of students' social networks can help us identify how improved educational methods can be used to make learning more inclusive at both school and university levels and achieve holistic development of students through expansion of their social networks, as well as control the spread of delinquent behaviors.Comment: Huso 201

Student-Athletes’ First-Year College Transitions at a Mid-American Conference University: Investigating Stressors in Different Identities and COVID-19

According to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), roughly 180,000 studentathletes are making the transition from high school to college in order to have the opportunity to compete in collegiate athletics ( NCAA recruiting fact, 2020). First-year student-athletes face the same transitions that non-student-athletes go through regarding social and academic identity, however, student-athletes have the additional stressor of having an athletic identity (Freeman, 2015; McFarlane, 2014; New, 2015; Skinner, 2004; Smith & Hardin, 2020). An additional transition came in the spring of 2020 with COVID-19 (Bullard, 2020; Roetert et. al., 2020). The purpose of this study was to investigate how the first-year transition process affected Division I student-athletes from the Mid-American Conference. The participants answered questions about transitioning to their university, rating their level of support across different areas, and transitioning unexpectedly due to COVID-19. Positives aspects of the transition included having a helpful coaching staff, supportive family and friends, approachable academic staff, and relief COVID-19 brought in providing a break. Negatives aspects of the transition that were mentioned included: adjusting to a new environment, struggling to balance being a Division I athlete, poor relationship either with academic or athletic staff, and readjusting to life back home during COVID-19

Party On: The Labor Market Returns to Social Networks in Adolescence

We investigate the returns to adolescent friendships on earnings in adulthood. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, we document that individuals make investments to accumulate friends in addition to educational investments. Because both education and friendships are jointly determined in adolescence, OLS estimates of their returns are biased. To estimate the causal returns to friendships, we implement a novel procedure that assumes the returns to schooling range from 5 to 15% (as the literature has documented), and instrument for friendships using homophily (similarity) measures among peers to obtain bounds on the returns to friendships. We find that having one more friend in adolescence increases earnings between 7 and 14%, which is substantially larger than the OLS estimates: measurement error and omitted variables lead to significant downward bias

SOCIAL SUPPORT AND PERSISTENCE AMONG UNIVERSITY TRANSFER STUDENTS ATTENDING A COMMUNITY COLLEGE: A GROUNDED THEORY STUDY

This study explored the role of social support in relation to the persistence of community college students enrolled in a university transfer program at a single institution. Student persistence rates in community colleges are low in comparison to other sectors of higher education. To explain community college student persistence, past researchers relied on theories of student retention that were developed from data collected in traditional four-year colleges and universities. Although the dominant theories of student retention emphasized social integration and involvement, the role of social support as related to persistence in community colleges was not adequately explored. The purpose of this study was to explore the role of social support as related to community college student experiences and persistence. The following primary research question was posed: What explains students\u27 perceptions of social support as related to their postsecondary education at a two-year or community college? Secondary research questions covered the types and functions of support, reliance on existing and new support relationships, instructional approaches and support, influences on the formation of social support relationships, and explanations for support behaviors of students. Utilizing a grounded theory approach, the researcher conducted in-depth interviews with university transfer students enrolled in a community college. Other data sources included demographic information, student characteristics, and a card sort activity on factors related to persistence. Participants provided rich data regarding social support in relation to their experiences and persistence. Findings indicated that motivation to succeed and enacted social support were the most important contributors to persistence. Grounded in analysis of the data collected, a theoretical model entitled Students Utilizing Community College Enacted Social Support (SUCCESS) was developed. The SUCCESS model depicts the prominence of enacted social support as contributing to the persistence of community college students. The implications of the study\u27s findings for theory, practice, and policy are discussed. Recommendations are provided for additional research related to the role of social support and community college persistence

It’s Not Brain Science… Or Is It? How Early Second Language Learning Can Impact Future Achievement

Capstone paper from 2015 spring MPA program. Instructed by Allen Zagoren.We live in a global economy, yet U.S. citizens lag far behind in the knowledge of other countries’ languages, cultures, customs, geographies and peoples. Equipping the next generation with foreign language skills as well as knowledge of other cultures and customs will not only provide increased career opportunities for individuals but also aid in the future success of the U.S. economy. The U.S. educational system does not stress the learning of language beyond English: K-12 curriculum is rigidly mandated, budgets are tight, class time and teacher training is limited, and language programs are often among the first to be cut during budget crises. There is a time period when a child’s brain is developing and most receptive to learning, and that is early childhood. If the seed were planted in a child before he/she enters kindergarten to learn the basics of a foreign language and culture, perhaps that knowledge could be nourished throughout the rest of their lives, preparing those children to embrace cultural differences, live and compete more successfully in an evolving and diverse world, and be better equipped for later education. Besides examining the current state of foreign language education in the U.S. and how learning occurs, the benefits of foreign language learning in relation to business and human relations are examined in this paper. Multiple solutions to solving the foreign language deficit are mentioned including a proposal for an early-learning language program

Essays in the economics and econometrics of networks and peer effect

Defence date: 23 May 2023Examining Board: Prof. Andrea Ichino, (European University Institute, supervisor); Prof. Sule Alan, (European University Institute, co-supervisor); Prof. Eric Auerbach, (Northwestern University); Prof. Yann Bramoullé, (Aix-Marseille School of Economics)This thesis contributes to the understanding of peer effects, both methodologically and empirically. The endogeneity of network formation has been a major obstacle to the study of peer influence. The first and the second chapters of the thesis propose a causal identification solution in the potential outcome framework. Combining results from multiple causal inference and statistical network analysis, I show that confounding can be addressed by inferring propensity scores of network link formation from the adjacency matrix. This identification strategy imposes minimum restrictions on the data-generating process and, unlike existing econometric solutions, does not rely on any parametric modelling. As an application, I estimate the effect of high school friendships on bachelor’s degree attainment. While previous literature finds that exposure to more high-achieving boys makes girls less likely to obtain a bachelor’s degree, I show that if the girls consider the boys as friends, their interactions induce a positive impact instead. Since friendship endogeneity has been addressed, the estimated effect is causal. The third chapter looks at the peer effects generated by group competition. It focuses on the gender differences in preference for competition in a setting where the competition does not involve face-to-face confrontation, and effort is the only determinant of the final ranking. I first develop a model of group competition with heterogeneous preference for ranking. With empirical implications generated from the theoretical model, I then test the gender difference in the preference parameter using web-scraped data from Duolingo, a free online foreign-language learning platform with over 300 million users. Every week, language learners on Duolingo are randomly allocated to groups of 30 people to compete on the number of language lessons completed during that week. The empirical results suggest in this setting, females have a stronger preference for ranking than males.1. The linking effect: causal identification and estimation of the effect of peer relationship -- 2. Extensions, theoretical proofs, and additional results on the linking effect -- 3. Gender difference in preference for competition -- 4. Reference