The Old Boy (and Girl) Network: Social Network Formation on University Campuses

Posted: 30 Jul 2008

See all articles by Adalbert Mayer

Adalbert Mayer

Texas A&M University - Department of Economics

Steven L. Puller

Texas A&M University - Department of Economics; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Date Written: July, 27 2008

Abstract

This paper documents the structure and composition of social networks on university campuses and investigates the processes that lead to their formation. Using administrative data and information from Facebook.com, we document the factors that are the strongest predictors of whether two students are friends. Race is strongly related to social ties, even after controlling for a variety of measures of socioeconomic background, ability, and college activities. We develop a model of the formation of social networks that decomposes the formation of social links into effects based upon the exogenous school environment and effects of endogenous choice arising from preferences for certain characteristics in one's friends. We use student-level data from an actual social network to calibrate the model. We simulate the social network under alternative university policies aimed at reducing social segmentation. We find that changes in the school environment that affect the likelihood that two students interact have only a limited potential to reduce the racial segmentation of the social network.

Keywords: social networks, higher education, racial segregation

JEL Classification: I20, J15, J62, Z13

Suggested Citation

Mayer, Adalbert and Puller, Steven Lawrence, The Old Boy (and Girl) Network: Social Network Formation on University Campuses (July, 27 2008). Journal of Public Economics, Vol. 92, pp. 329-347,2008, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1180942

Adalbert Mayer

Texas A&M University - Department of Economics ( email )

5201 University Blvd.
College Station, TX 77843-4228
United States

Steven Lawrence Puller (Contact Author)

Texas A&M University - Department of Economics ( email )

5201 University Blvd.
College Station, TX 77843-4228
United States

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) ( email )

1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Abstract Views
1,039
PlumX Metrics