Heterogeneous peer effects in competitive environments: the case of high-school harriers

Nathan J. Ashby

Applied Economics Letters, 2025, vol. 32, issue 4, 557-562

Abstract: Using exogenous enrolment-based assignments to high school athletic associations, I analyse peer effects in single-sex cross-country running competitions. I find evidence of improvements after promotion to more competitive classifications for boys and the combined sample while detecting evidence of improvement for girls after relegation. Boys in the top quartile and girls in the second lowest quartile demonstrate the largest improvements after being promoted to a higher classification. Two-stage least-squares estimates provide some confirmation of the mechanism through which classification changes impact performance, but identification is complicated by the heterogeneous responses by quartile. Rather than attributing findings to heterogeneous behaviour, the disparity can plausibly be explained by rational responses to heterogeneity in the payoff structure as determined by larger college scholarship opportunities for girls.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/13504851.2023.2276075 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:apeclt:v:32:y:2025:i:4:p:557-562

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/RAEL20

DOI: 10.1080/13504851.2023.2276075

Access Statistics for this article

Applied Economics Letters is currently edited by Anita Phillips

More articles in Applied Economics Letters from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().