1/ 🤔 Ever wondered if pairing socially isolated students with popular peers helps or hurts their outcomes? My job market paper explores this through a large-scale RCT across Indian schools. Thread below 🧵 #EconSky #EconJobMarket #JMP - ThreadSky

palaashbhargava.bsky.social • 94 days ago

1/ 🤔 Ever wondered if pairing socially isolated students with popular peers helps or hurts their outcomes?

My job market paper explores this through a large-scale RCT across Indian schools.

Thread below 🧵

#EconSky #EconJobMarket #JMP

Comments

runningsignal.com•93 days ago

Would you say this research could extend into the workplace with novice - tenured type relationships?

I see it a lot in business.

palaashbhargava.bsky.social•93 days ago

Totally! One of the examples that I give while presenting this paper is how norms about interacting with graduate students in academic departments are based on how many professors make the effort. Only one is not enough.

runningsignal.com•93 days ago

Thank you for entertaining the question, Palaash!

palaashbhargava.bsky.social•93 days ago

I guess it would be interesting to see if this finding does extend to workplace in general. I would love to carry that research h out if given a chance.

ahumbleman.bsky.social•93 days ago

📌 thank you for your work and for sharing it! Papers like this are why I love economics 😁

amitloewe.bsky.social•90 days ago

Suggested soundtrack for reading: https://youtu.be/400LbTzZP6s?si=tv_AmEqF6nZhfPV7

hermeticcombustion.bsky.social•94 days ago

The popular-unpopular pairing results remind me of Mean Girls a bit (I really enjoyed this paper btw)

palaashbhargava.bsky.social•94 days ago

Funnily enough, when we approached the schools, half of the principals referred to Mean girls in their conversations with us :p
Thank you so much for going through the paper!

hermeticcombustion.bsky.social•94 days ago

That's hilarious haha!

andreamatranga.bsky.social•93 days ago

palaashbhargava.bsky.social•94 days ago

2/ Tl;dr: Within classrooms: Pairing isolated students with each other improves their outcomes.

Across classrooms: It creates a negative externality by limiting social integration.

Optimal pairing strategies require trade-offs. ⚖️

More below. 👇

palaashbhargava.bsky.social•94 days ago

3/ 🎓 Isolated students face significant academic and socio-emotional challenges. Teachers often pair them with popular peers to foster connections. But does this strategy actually work?

palaashbhargava.bsky.social•94 days ago

4/ Pairing isolated students with popular peers can boost social integration but may trigger negative social comparisons, harming self-esteem. Plus, altering deskmate plans reshape entire classroom dynamics; an issue that has prevented peer matching interventions from scaling up.

palaashbhargava.bsky.social•94 days ago

5/ To see what works best, I independently recruit and conduct a 2-tier randomized intervention with 12,842 students in 381 classrooms across 13 Indian cities. 🇮🇳

palaashbhargava.bsky.social•94 days ago

6/ I collect data from students on their:
📚 Friendship/help networks
🎓 Classroom experiences
🧠 Socio-emotional skills

Using peer nominations, I categorize students into 3 popularity levels: low (isolated), medium, and high.

palaashbhargava.bsky.social•94 days ago

7/ 🪑 In Stage 1, I randomize desk pairings within classrooms: some low-popularity students are paired with other isolated peers, others with more popular peers.

In Stage 2, I vary the proportion of these pairings across classrooms to alter overall classroom dynamics.

Results?

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