Estimating and Interpreting Peer and Role Model Effects from Randomly Assigned Social Groups at West Point
利用西点军校学员随机分配至社会群体的独特数据，揭示常见研究中社会群体效应估计的误导性，发现群体对学业成绩影响微弱，但对专业选择和留队决策有显著影响。
The random assignment of cadets to social groups at West Point provides a rare opportunity to highlight potentially misleading estimates of social group effects found in many studies. Estimates of contemporaneous group effects in human capital production are typically positive and significant; however, evidence in this study suggests that occurrences common to a group may account for much of this correlation. Models that address these biases provide little evidence of group effects in academic performance, although there is evidence of group influences in choice outcomes such as the selection of academic major and the decision to remain in the Army. Copyright by the President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.