Template-type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0
Author-Name: Zhang, Ying
Author-Email: zhang@merit.unu.edu
Author-Workplace-Name: UNU-MERIT
Author-Name: Rajabzadeh, Iman
Author-Email: rajabzadeh@merit.unu.edu
Author-Workplace-Name: UNU-MERIT
Author-Name: Lauterbach, Rodolfo
Author-Email: lauterbach@merit.unu.edu
Author-Workplace-Name: UNU-MERIT
Title: Student Network Centrality and Academic Performance: Evidence from United 
	 Nations University
Abstract: In this paper we empirically studied the relationship between network 
	 centrality and academic performance among a group of 47 PhD students 
	 from UNU-MERIT institute. We conducted an independent email survey and 
	 relied on social networks theory as well as standard econometric 
	 procedures to analyse the data. We found a significant reversed U-shaped 
	 relation between network centrality and students' academic performance. 
	 We controlled our results by several node's characteristics such as age, 
	 academic background, and research area. Additional evidence shows that 
	 there is a negative impact of age on academic performance at PhD student 
	 level. Contributions of this paper can refer to the input into studies 
	 that aim to explore peereffect. Also it contributes to the 
	 methodological approach by combining elements of network analysis and 
	 econometric theories. This study demonstrates that when evaluating the 
	 impact of network centrality on performance, there is no significant 
	 difference between various network centrality measurements.
Classification-JEL: D85, I21, I23, L14
Keywords: Networks analysis, Network centrality, Peer-effect, Academic performance 
Series: UNU-MERIT Working Papers
Creation-Date: 2009
Number: 2009-034
File-URL: https://unu-merit.nl/publications/wppdf/2009/wp2009-034.pdf
File-Format: application/pdf
File-Size: 275 Kb
Handle: RePEc:unm:unumer:2009034