TrygFonden's Child Research Seminar Series: Raphael Brade, ifo Center for the Economics of Education

Abstract: How does the formation of social connections at the beginning of college shape individuals' subsequent academic performance? Exploiting quasi-random assignment to groups of a two-day freshman orientation program, I find that such brief social activities can be sufficient to generate lasting performance spillovers: being assigned to a peer group with one SD higher ability improves the academic performance of business administration students by 0.05 to 0.08 SD up to three years later. I provide evidence that the effects result from the formation of lasting social ties, and that performance spillovers are moderated by the broader social environment.

The current version of the paper is very similar to the CESifo WP version: https://www.cesifo.org/de/publikationen/2024/working-paper/short-term-events-long-term-friends-freshman-orientation-peers-and