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You Are Who You Eat With: Academic Peer Effects from School Lunch Lines

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  • Presler, Jonathan

    (Sinquefield Center for Applied Economic Research, Saint Louis University)

Abstract

Using daily lunch transaction data from NYC public schools, I determine which students frequently stand next to one another in the lunch line. I use this `revealed' friendship network to estimate academic peer effects in elementary school classrooms, improving on previous work by defining not only where social connections exist, but the relative strength of these connections. Equally weighting all peers in a reference group assumes that all peers are equally important and may bias estimates by underweighting important peers and overweighting unimportant peers. I find that students who eat together are important influencers of one another's academic performance, with stronger effects in math than in reading. Further exploration of the mechanisms supports my claim that these are friendship networks. I also compare the influence of friends from different periods in the school year and find that connections occurring around standardized testing dates are most influential on test scores.

Suggested Citation

  • Presler, Jonathan, 2021. "You Are Who You Eat With: Academic Peer Effects from School Lunch Lines," Working Papers 21-2, Sinquefield Center for Applied Economic Research, Saint Louis University.
    • Handle: RePEc:ris:sluecr:2021_002
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Peer effect; network; education; lunch line;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C31 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables - - - Cross-Sectional Models; Spatial Models; Treatment Effect Models; Quantile Regressions; Social Interaction Models
    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education

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