Peer Effects on Violence: Experimental Evidence from El Salvador

83 Pages Posted: 9 Jan 2024

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Abstract

Globally, 150 million adolescents report being victims of or engaging in peer-to-peer violence in and around school. One strategy to reduce this risk is to occupy youth in after-school programs (ASP). Yet, the question remains: how does peer group composition affect the effectiveness of an ASP? I address this question by randomly assigning youths to either a control, homogeneous, or heterogeneous peer group within an ASP implemented in El Salvador. I find that, unlike homogeneous groups, heterogeneous peer groups do help students avoid violence. These results are relevant to public policy discussions on optimal group composition for violence reduction programs.

Keywords: Peer effects, violence, integration, tracking, after-school programs

Suggested Citation

Dinarte, Lelys, Peer Effects on Violence: Experimental Evidence from El Salvador. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4678444 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4678444

Lelys Dinarte (Contact Author)

World Bank ( email )

1818 H Street, NW
Washington, DC 20433
United States

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