“Why Are Some More Peer Than Others? Class-level Evidence From a Longitudinal Study of Social Networks and Individual Academic Performance.”
By Alessandro Lomi, Tom A.B. Snijders, Christian Steglich, and Vanina J. Torlò, 2011.
Social Science Research 40, 1506-1520.

Studies of peer effects in educational settings confront two main problems. The first is the presence of endogenous sorting confounding effects of social influence and social selection on individual attainment. The second is the presence of local dependencies affecting the formation and change of network ties through which peer effects effectively operate. We address these problems empirically using longitudinal data that we have collected on academic performance, friendship, and advice seeking relations among students in a full-time graduate academic program. We specify stochastic models for network dynamics identifying the interdependent contribution of social selection and social influence to individual performance. We find evidence of peer effects taking the form of performance assimilation: students achieve levels of performance similar to those of their friends and peer advisers. Network ties are more likely between students attaining a similar level of performance. However, students receiving higher grades are less inclined to initiate friendship and advice relations, are avoided as friends, but sought after as advisers. These results imply that dynamic feedback processes linking social influence and social selection amplify individual differences in individual attainment. We discuss possible points of contact between our results and current research in the economics and sociology of education.

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