Reconsidering Peer Effects from Schoolmates Exposed to Violence at Home

<h3>Abstract</h3> Prior research suggests that students exposed to domestic violence impose substantial negative externalities on peers’ learning and labor market outcomes. We test whether these findings generalize using nine-years of student data from a large urban school district linked to geocoded police records of at-home violence. In contrast to prior work, we find negligible peer effects. Adding one exposed peer to a classroom of 20 students reduces English and math scores by a statistically insignificant 0.006 standard deviations and increases disciplinary incidents by 3.2%. We reject achievement reductions greater than 0.017 standard deviations and disciplinary increases larger than 8.3%.