social network formation

This paper uses matched survey and administrative data on first-year Economics
students who were studying at the Javeriana University in Bogotá, Colombia,
in 2015 in order to estimate peer effects on student grades. We employ
the strategy proposed by De Giorgi, Pellizzari & Redaelli (2010) to identify and
estimate these peer effects. Our results show that peer effects are economically
significant in their context, that they result from the sharing of specific
rather than general skills among peers, and that they flow mainly from peers
with whom students interact frequently and who are considered to be leaders.