Previous work on social interactions has analyzed the effects of nuclear family, peer, school, and neighborhood characteristics. This paper complements this research by first showing that individuals from similar nuclear families often differ in extended family member characteristics. It then...

Previous work on social interactions has analyzed the effects of nuclear family, peer, school, and neighborhood characteristics. This paper complements this research by first showing that individuals from similar nuclear families often differ in extended family member characteristics. It then...

The importance of neighborhood background characteristics on socioeconomic outcomes is uncertain because some dimensions of neighborhood quality such as social norms and social cohesion are difficult to measure. This paper shows that teen childbearing declines with increases in the fraction of a...

Previous work on social interactions has analyzed the effects of nuclear family, peer, school, and neighborhood characteristics. None has previously demonstrated that grandparents also alter grandchildren's schooling independently of parents. This paper shows that higher years of schooling of...

Understanding the role of informal contacts in job search can be important given that roughly half of workers find employment through such sources. Some previous research finds that informal contacts improve labor market outcomes. Other work shows that individuals who found their jobs through...