Social Interactions, Mechanisms, and Equilibrium: Evidence from a Model of Study Time and Academic Achievement

Abstract

We develop and estimate a model of student study time choices on a social network. The model is designed to exploit unique data collected in the Berea Panel Study. Study time data allow us to quantify an intuitive mechanism for academic social interactions: own study time may depend on friend study time in a heterogeneous manner. Social network data allow us to embed study time and resulting academic achievement in an estimable equilibrium framework. We develop a specification test that exploits the equilibrium nature of social interactions and use it to show that novel study propensity measures mitigate econometric endogeneity concerns.

Keywords: social networks, peer effects, homophily, time-use

JEL Classification: C520, C540, I200