Castronova, Edward. 2004. "Social Norms and Sexual Activity in U.S. High Schools." Journal of Human Resources 39(4): 912-937.

This paper estimates a formal model of social norms with multiple equilibria using data from the Add-Health Survey of 20,000 U.S. high school students. The results suggest that there is considerable diversity in social norm equilibria, with some schools enforcing norms against sexual activity and others not doing so. The rate of sexual activity is about 5 percent lower in schools with norm-enforcing equilibria, suggesting that social norm effects are neither trivial nor decisive. Still, the most consistently significant factor affecting teen sexual activity is not the social environment or the school, but rather the family.

Edward Castronova is an associate professor of telecommunications at Indiana University, Bloomington. He thanks participants in seminars at Cal State Fullerton and Hamilton College, and Ken Kollman, Ken Shotts, Jonathan Bendor, Dave Weimer, and two referees for comments on earlier drafts. Janelle Bardol provided invaluable research assistance. He claims responsibility for any errors. The data used in this publication are from a study entitled The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), Waves I & II, 1994-1996, conducted by J. Richard Udry of the Carolina Population Center, CB# 8120, University Square, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27516-3997. Funding for the data collection was provided by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) under Grant No. P01-HD31921. The original investigators and the funding agency are not responsible for the analyses or interpretations presented here. The data used to conduct this study may be obtained from this source.