Peers at work: Evidence from the lab

Roel van Veldhuizen, Hessel Oosterbeek and Joep Sonnemans ()

PLOS ONE, 2018, vol. 13, issue 2, 1-15

Abstract: This paper reports the results of a lab experiment designed to study the role of observability for peer effects in the setting of a simple production task. In our experiment, participants in the role of workers engage in a team real-effort task. We vary whether they can observe, or be observed by, one of their co-workers. In contrast to earlier findings from the field, we find no evidence that low-productivity workers perform better when they are observed by high-productivity co-workers. Instead, our results imply that peer effects in our experiment are heterogeneous, with some workers reciprocating a high-productivity co-worker but others taking the opportunity to free ride.

Date: 2018
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (16)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0192038

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0192038

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