Young adults living with their parents and the influence of peers

Abstract

This paper focuses on young adults living with their parents in the U.S. and studies the role of peers. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health)we analize the influence of high school friends on the coresidence of young adults with their parents. We address the challenges in the identification of peer effects in a static framework and employ an instrumental variable technique and control for state fixed effects in order to mitigate them. We then move to a dynamic framework and exploit differences in the timing of leaving the parental home among peers. Our results indicate that there are statistically significant peer effects on the nest-leaving behavior of young adults.