The Effect of Classmate Characteristics on Post- Secondary Outcomes: Evidence from the Add Health^

This paper uses a within-school/across-cohort design to present new evidence of the effects of high school classmate characteristics on a wide range of post-secondary outcomes. We find that increases in the percent of classmates with college-educated mothers decreases the likelihood of dropping out and increases the likelihood of attending college, despite showing no impact on a range of in-school achievement, attitudes, and behaviors. The percent of students from disadvantaged minority groups does not show any effects on post-secondary outcomes, but is associated with students reporting less caring student-teacher relationships and increased prevalence of some undesirable student behaviors during high school. (JEL I21, J13, J15)

[1]  Benjamin C. Hansen,et al.  The Minimum Dropout Age and Student Victimization , 2012 .

[2]  Stephen L. Ross,et al.  Mortgage lending in Chicago and Los Angeles: A paired testing study of the pre-application process , 2008 .

[3]  Peer Influences on Adolescent Alcohol Consumption: Evidence Using an Instrumental Variables/Fixed Effect Approach , 2011 .

[4]  Russell W. Rumberger,et al.  Student Mobility and the Increased Risk of High School Dropout , 1998, American Journal of Education.

[5]  S. S. Young,et al.  Resampling-Based Multiple Testing: Examples and Methods for p-Value Adjustment , 1993 .

[6]  Victor Lavy,et al.  Inside the Black Box of Ability Peer Effects: Evidence from Variation in the Proportion of Low Achievers in the Classroom , 2008 .

[7]  Daiji Kawaguchi,et al.  Peer effects on substance use among American teenagers , 2002 .

[8]  Victor Lavy,et al.  The Good, the Bad, and the Average: Evidence on Ability Peer Effects in Schools , 2012, Journal of Labor Economics.

[9]  Michael A. Boozer,et al.  Inside the 'Black Box' of Project Star: Estimation of Peer Effects Using Experimental Data , 2001 .

[10]  John F. Kain,et al.  New Evidence About Brown V. Board of Education: The Complex Effects of School Racial Composition on Achievement , 2002 .

[11]  Jonathan Guryan,et al.  Peer Effects in the Workplace: Evidence from Random Groupings in Professional Golf Tournaments , 2007, American economic journal. Applied economics.

[12]  Thomas D. Cook,et al.  What Have Black Children Gained Academically from School Desegregation: Examination of the Metaanalytic Evidence. , 1983 .

[13]  John F. Kain,et al.  New Evidence about Brown v. Board of Education: The Complex Effects of School Racial Composition on Achievement , 2002, Journal of Labor Economics.

[14]  J. Shaffer.  Multiple Hypothesis Testing , 1995 .

[15]  W. Kalsbeek,et al.  Effects of Nonresponse on the Mean Squared Error of Estimates from a Longitudinal Study , 2001 .

[16]  Kevin Lang,et al.  Does School Integration Generate Peer Effects? Evidence from Boston's Metco Program , 2004, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[17]  Mark S. Granovetter.  Getting a Job: A Study of Contacts and Careers , 1974 .

[18]  C. Hoxby,et al.  Peer Effects in the Classroom: Learning from Gender and Race Variation , 2000 .

[19]  M. Tienda,et al.  Educational Aspirations of Minority Youth , 1998, American Journal of Education.

[20]  Christopher R. Taber,et al.  Selection on Observed and Unobserved Variables: Assessing the Effectiveness of Catholic Schools , 2000, Journal of Political Economy.

[21]  Brian Krauth,et al.  Sorting and inequality in Canadian schools , 2007 .

[22]  Stephen L. Ross,et al.  Identifying Individual and Group Effects in the Presence of Sorting: A Neighborhood Effects Application , 2006 .

[23]  A. Portes,et al.  The educational and early occupational attainment process. , 1969 .

[24]  A. Krueger,et al.  Race and School Quality Since Brown vs. Board of Education , 1992 .

[25]  Valerie E. Lee,et al.  Dropping Out of High School: The Role of School Organization and Structure , 2003 .

[26]  Henry Braun,et al.  Reconsidering the Impact of High-stakes Testing , 2004 .

[27]  Diane Whitmore,et al.  Resource and peer impacts on girls' academic achievement : Evidence from a randomized experiment , 2005 .

[28]  S. Bikhchandani,et al.  You have printed the following article : A Theory of Fads , Fashion , Custom , and Cultural Change as Informational Cascades , 2007 .

[29]  J. Grogger.  Local Violence and Educational Attainment , 1997 .

[30]  J. Chimka.  Categorical Data Analysis, Second Edition , 2003 .

[31]  C. Manski.  Identification of Endogenous Social Effects: The Reflection Problem , 1993 .

[32]  Valerie E. Lee,et al.  Social Capital and Dropping Out of High School: Benefits to At-Risk Students of Teachers' Support and Guidance , 2001 .

[33]  Giorgio Topa,et al.  Place of Work and Place of Residence: Informal Hiring Networks and Labor Market Outcomes , 2005, Journal of Political Economy.

[34]  S. Raphael,et al.  School-Based Peer Effects and Juvenile Behavior , 1997 .

[35]  Esther Duflo,et al.  Peer Effects, Teacher Incentives, and the Impact of Tracking: Evidence from a Randomized Evaluation in Kenya , 2008 .

[36]  W. Evans,et al.  Measuring Peer Group Effects: A Study of Teenage Behavior , 1992, Journal of Political Economy.

[37]  S. Rivkin,et al.  School Desegregation, Academic Attainment, and Earnings , 2000 .

[38]  J. Heckman,et al.  THE AMERICAN HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION RATE: TRENDS AND LEVELS. , 2010, The review of economics and statistics.

[39]  J. E. West,et al.  Does Your Cohort Matter? Measuring Peer Effects in College Achievement , 2009 .

[40]  Mark S. Granovetter,et al.  Getting a Job: A Study of Contacts and Careers. , 1976 .

[41]  Walt Haney,et al.  High School Graduation Rates:Alternative Methods and Implications , 2004 .

[42]  David Card,et al.  Racial Segregation and the Black-White Test Score Gap , 2006 .

[43]  C. Hoxby.  The Effects of Class Size on Student Achievement: New Evidence from Population Variation , 2000 .

[44]  Michael L. Anderson.  Multiple Inference and Gender Differences in the Effects of Early Intervention: A Reevaluation of the Abecedarian, Perry Preschool, and Early Training Projects , 2008 .

[45]  Sandra McNally,et al.  Non�?Native Speakers of English in the Classroom: What are the Effects on Pupil Performance? , 2012 .

[46]  Jason M. Fletcher,et al.  Social Interactions and Smoking: Evidence Using Multiple Student Cohorts, Instrumental Variables, and School Fixed Effects , 2007, Health economics.

[47]  William N. Evans,et al.  Teen Drinking and Educational Attainment: Evidence from Two‐Sample Instrumental Variables Estimates , 2003, Journal of Labor Economics.

[48]  Bernard Fortin,et al.  Do Peers Affect Student Achievement? Evidence from Canada Using Group Size Variation , 2010 .

[49]  Simon Burgess,et al.  Test Scores, Subjective Assessment, and Stereotyping of Ethnic Minorities , 2013, Journal of Labor Economics.

[50]  S. Davies,et al.  Whatever Happened to Yesterday's Rebels? Longitudinal Effects of Youth Delinquency on Education and Employment , 1999 .

[51]  Jonathan Guryan,et al.  Desegregation and Black Dropout Rates , 2001 .

[52]  Inside the Black of Box of Ability Peer Effects: Evidence from Variation in the Proportion of Low Achievers in the Classroom , 2008 .

[53]  J. Grogger.  Local Violence, Educational Attainment, and Teacher Pay , 1997 .

[54]  Pete Goldschmidt,et al.  When Can Schools Affect Dropout Behavior? A Longitudinal Multilevel Analysis , 1999 .

[55]  S. Davies,et al.  Whatever happened to yesterday’s rebels? , 1999 .

[56]  Mark Grinblatt,et al.  Social Influence and Consumption: Evidence from the Automobile Purchases of Neighbors , 2007 .

[57]  A. Agresti,et al.  Categorical Data Analysis , 1991, International Encyclopedia of Statistical Science.

[58]  S. Carrell,et al.  Externalities in the Classroom: How Children Exposed to Domestic Violence Affect Everyone&Apos;S Kids , 2008 .

[59]  B. Schneider,et al.  Students on the Move: Residential and Educational Mobility in America's Schools. , 1999 .