Identification (biology)

Random assignment

Neuroscience

Academic achievement

Mathematics

Biology

Statistics

Mathematics education

Developmental psychology

Cognition

Political science

Artificial intelligence

Psychology

Class (philosophy)

Nomination

Friendship

Computer science

Botany

Social psychology

The Economic Journal

We investigate the impacts of separating students in Israel from pre-existing social relationships during the transition from elementary to middle school on their academic progress. We define several types of friendships using students' self-defined friendship nomination and rely for identification on the random assignment of students to classes within a given school. Our results suggest that the number of friends has positive or negative effects on students' educational outcomes, depending on the type of and on friends' socio-economic background. These gains might be partly mediated through greater cooperation, reduction in violent behaviour and improvements in social satisfaction in class.

The Effect of Social Networks on Students' Academic and Non-cognitive Behavioural Outcomes: Evidence from Conditional Random Assignment of Friends in School