Speaker: Qinyou Hu (Visiting Scholar at Aalto University School of Business)

Time: 10:00 - 11:30 a.m., Dec 11, 2024, GMT+8

Venue: Rm 107, School of Economics, PKU

Abstract: 

This paper examines the formation of a specific non-cognitive skill - empathy - and its role in determining bullying behavior with a focus on social networks. The analysis centers on a parent-directed empathy-fostering intervention, which successfully increased empathy levels and reduced bullying among students. To disentangle the mechanisms underlying these findings, I develop and estimate a structural model of empathy development, network formation, and bullying decisions. The analysis reveals that 32% of the observed reduction in bullying is attributed to empathy-induced alterations in social networks. Policy counterfactuals show that social network information is valuable. Notably, targeting students based on popularity can lead to up to a 7.5% further reduction in bullying compared to targeting students randomly. Moreover, targeting bullies friends is more effective than targeting bullies directly. This insight holds promise for refining the efficacy of anti-bullying initiatives, which often focus more on bullies, and highlights the potential of reshaping socialnetworks to mitigate violent behavior among adolescents.

Source: Institute for Global Health and Development, PKU