Accounting for Peer Effects in Treatment Response

49 Pages Posted: 2 Aug 2014

See all articles by Rokhaya Dieye

Rokhaya Dieye

Université Laval

Habiba Djebbari

Université Laval - Département d'Économique; IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Felipe Barrera-Osorio

Harvard University - Harvard Graduate School of Education

Abstract

When one's treatment status affects the outcomes of others, experimental data are not sufficient to identify a treatment causal impact. In order to account for peer effects in program response, we use a social network model. We estimate and validate the model on experimental data collected for the evaluation of a scholarship program in Colombia. By design, randomization is at the student-level. Friendship data reveals that treated and untreated students interact together. Besides providing evidence of peer effects in schooling, we find that ignoring peer effects would have led us to overstate the program actual impact.

Keywords: education, social network, impact evaluation

JEL Classification: C31, C93, I22

Suggested Citation

Dieye, Rokhaya and Djebbari, Habiba and Barrera-Osorio, Felipe, Accounting for Peer Effects in Treatment Response. IZA Discussion Paper No. 8340, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2475308 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2475308

Rokhaya Dieye (Contact Author)

Université Laval ( email )

2214 Pavillon J-A. DeSeve
Quebec, Quebec G1K 7P4
Canada

Habiba Djebbari

Université Laval - Département d'Économique ( email )

2325 Rue de l'Université
Ste-Foy, Quebec G1K 7P4 G1K 7P4
Canada

IZA Institute of Labor Economics

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

Felipe Barrera-Osorio

Harvard University - Harvard Graduate School of Education ( email )

456 Gutman Library
6 appian way
cambridge, MA 02138
United States

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