Peers and Motivation at Work: Evidence from a Firm Experiment in Malawi

Lasse Brune, Eric Chyn and Jason Kerwin

No axbth, SocArXiv from Center for Open Science

Abstract: This paper studies workplace peer effects by randomly varying work assignments at a tea estate in Malawi. We find that increasing mean peer ability by 10 percent raises productivity by 0.3 percent. This effect is driven by the responses of women. Neither production nor compensation externalities cause the effect because workers receive piece rates and do not work in teams. Additional analyses provide no support for learning or socialization as mechanisms. Instead, peer effects appear to operate through “motivation”: given the choice to be reassigned, most workers prefer working near high-ability co-workers because these peers motivate them to work harder.

Date: 2020-06-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hrm, nep-net and nep-ure
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Peers and Motivation at Work: Evidence from a Firm Experiment in Malawi (2022)
Working Paper: Peers and Motivation at Work: Evidence from a Firm Experiment in Malawi (2020)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:osf:socarx:axbth

DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/axbth

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