Peer effects, self-selection and dishonesty

Liza Charroin, Bernard Fortin and Marie Claire Villeval

Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2022, vol. 200, issue C, 618-637

Abstract: If individuals tend to behave like their reference group, is it because of peer effects, self-selection, or both? Using a peer effect model allowing for conformity and link formation, we designed a real-effort laboratory experiment in which individuals could misreport their performance and select their peers. Our results reveal both a preference for conformity and homophilous link formation, but only among individuals cheating in isolation. This suggests that such link formation was not motivated by a taste for similarity but by acquiring self-serving information. Importantly, we reject the presence of a self-selection bias in the peer effect estimates by showing that the size of peer effects is similar when identical peers were randomly assigned and when individuals selected them.

Keywords: Peer effects; Self-selection; Homophily; Dishonesty; Experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C92 D83 D85 D91 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:200:y:2022:i:c:p:618-637

DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2022.06.024

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