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The Long-Term Impacts of Mixing the Rich and Poor: Evidence from Conscript Dorms

Elias Einiö

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics2026https://doi.org/10.1257/app.20240173article
AJG 4ABDC A*
Weight
0.50

Abstract

To what extent is economic success determined by with whom individuals interact socially? We tackle this question by exploiting a large-scale natural experiment in the Finnish conscription. Our research design is based on the alphabetization of dorms, which is shown to induce as good as random variation in peer composition. Dormmates from high-income families have a positive impact on earnings, with the largest effect among individuals from high-income families. For them, a one standard deviation increase in dormmates' parental income increases long-term earnings by 5.7 percent. The results support labor market networks among the rich as the key mechanism. (JEL D12, D31, G51, I32, J31, J45)

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https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1257/app.20240173

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@article{elias2026,
  title        = {{The Long-Term Impacts of Mixing the Rich and Poor: Evidence from Conscript Dorms}},
  author       = {Elias Einiö},
  journal      = {American Economic Journal: Applied Economics},
  year         = {2026},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1257/app.20240173},
}

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Evidence weight

0.50

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20
M · momentum0.50 × 0.15 = 0.07
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.