%0 Report
        %A Diaz, Lelys Dinarte
        %T Peer Effects on Violence: Experimental Evidence from El Salvador
        %D 2024
        %8 2024 Feb
        %I Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        %C Bonn
        %7 IZA Discussion Paper
        %N 16830
        %U https://www.iza.org/publications/dp16830
        %X Globally, 150 million adolescents report being victims of or engaging in peer-to-peer violence in and around school. One strategy to reduce this risk is to occupy youth in after-school programs (ASP). Yet, the question remains: how does peer group composition affect the effectiveness of an ASP? I address this question by randomly assigning youths to either a control, homogeneous, or heterogeneous peer group within an ASP implemented in El Salvador. I find that, unlike homogeneous groups, heterogeneous peer groups do help students avoid violence. These results are relevant to public policy discussions on optimal group composition for violence reduction programs.
        %K peer effects
%K violence
%K integration
%K tracking
%K after-school programs