Does the rotten child spoil his companion?: spatial peer effects among children in rural india

Helmers, Christian and Patnam, Manasa (2011) Does the rotten child spoil his companion?: spatial peer effects among children in rural india. SERC Discussion Papers (SERCDP0059). Spatial Economics Research Centre (SERC), London, UK.

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Abstract

This paper identifies the effect of neighborhood peer groups on childhood skill acquisition using observational data. We incorporate spatial peer interaction, defined as a child’s nearest geographical neighbors, into a production function of child cognitive development in Andhra Pradesh, India. Our peer group definition takes the form of networks, whose structure allows us to separately identify endogenous peer effects and contextual effects. We exploit variation over time to avoid confounding correlated with social effects. Our results suggest that spatial peer and neighborhood effects are strongly positively associated with a child’s cognitive skill formation. Further, we find that the presence of peer groups helps provide insurance against the negative impact of idiosyncratic shocks to child learning. We show that peer effects are robust to different specifications of peer interactions and investigate the sensitivity of our estimates to potential mis-specification of the network structure using Monte Carlo experiments.

Item Type:	Monograph (Working Paper)
Official URL:	http://www.spatialeconomics.ac.uk/SERC/publication...
Additional Information:	© 2011 Christian Helmers and Manasa Patnam
Divisions:	Spatial Economics Research Centre
Subjects:	G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > G Geography (General) H Social Sciences > HC Economic History and Conditions L Education > L Education (General)
JEL classification:	C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods > C2 - Econometric Methods: Single Equation Models; Single Variables > C21 - Cross-Sectional Models; Spatial Models; Treatment Effect Models O - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth > O1 - Economic Development > O15 - Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration R - Urban, Rural, and Regional Economics > R2 - Household Analysis > R23 - Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population
Date Deposited:	28 Mar 2011 10:27
Last Modified:	13 Sep 2024 20:17
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/33558

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