Network attributes and peer effects

This paper investigates how network attributes affect the strength of peer influences in adolescents' academic achievement and smoking behaviors. The results indicate that for both GPA and smoking, endogenous peer effects are stronger for network groups with larger size, higher network density or reciprocal link density, while endogenous interaction effects are weaker for network groups with larger non-white or black proportion. And the impact of gender composition on the strength of peer effects is small. Grouping all network groups together may mask the important heterogeneity of peer influences along these dimensions.