Peer Effects on Violence: Experimental Evidence from El Salvador
83 Pages Posted: 9 Jan 2024
There are 4 versions of this paper
Peer Effects on Violence: Experimental Evidence from El Salvador
Peer Effects on Violence: Experimental Evidence from El Salvador
Peer Effects on Violence: Experimental Evidence from El Salvador
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: Suggested Citation