Michael Kremer and Dan Levy, “Peer Effects and Alcohol Use Among College Students.” Journal of Economics Perspectives 22(3): 189-206, Summer, 2008.
• The data come from a large state university that randomly assigns some roommates. The finding: males assigned roommates who drank in high school had a lower GPA.
• By using high school characteristics, we can rule out that the GPA connection stems from common shocks to the roommates.
• For the most part, studies don’t find much support for the idea that academic characteristics affect the academic performance of roommates. Kremer and Levy likewise find no effect of academic background or social background on roommate academic achievement.
• The GPA decline for males is about .27 if the roommate drank in high school. The drop is especially bad for weak students, and for those who themselves drank in high school, and it’s much greater in the second year (though you are no longer roommates).
• Roommates who are not randomly assigned, but who choose each other, do not see falls in GPA from roommate drinking history.
• Reducing the drinking of one student can reduce the drinking of others. But collecting non-drinkers in substance-free housing will concentrate the drinking students, with a negative effect on overall GPAs.
No comments:
Post a Comment