A Peer Like Me? Peer Effects Among International Students in Doctoral Programs

This paper investigates how peers from the same country of origin affect persistence and degree completion among international doctoral students. Using a comprehensive administrative dataset of Ph.D. students in Ohio that links individuals to their peers within institutions and programs over time, I exploit the year-to-year variation in peer composition and construct threshold-based categories for both the share and number of own-country peers. The results reveal that a higher presence of own-country peers adversely affect educational outcomes, particularly once exposure exceeds certain thresholds. This negative effect is driven by country-specific dynamics, rather than the generalized peer effects among the broader international student population. These insights suggest that greater cohort diversity in terms of country of origin may enhance international student outcomes.