Peer observation can influence social norm perceptions as well as behavior in various moral domains, but is the tendency to be influenced by and conform with peers domain-general? In an online experiment (N = 815), we studied peer effects in honesty and cooperation and tested the...

There is substantial empirical evidence showing that peer effects matter in many activities. The workhorse model in empirical work on peer effects is the linear-in-means (LIM) model, whereby it is assumed that agents are linearly affected by the mean action of their peers. We provide two...

This study examines the role of historically defined social identity in human capital development over time by focusing on a region from India where social identities are defined along the lines of castes and religious groups. It investigates the evolution of gaps across social groups in...

A common proposal to improve US policing is to increase minority representation in police departments. The net effect of such policies depends on the direct effect of the minority officers as well as their peer effect on others. I document the effect of minority peers in the Chicago police...

This paper studies the effect of different social networks on investment decisions, and investigates how homophily and learning drive peer effect in financial decisions. Using unique data on co-workers, family, neighbors, and stock trading, I find that co-workers are the most influential peers,...

Peer group benchmarking, which compares executive compensation contracts against a group of similar companies, is a widely used yet heavily debated technique for setting executive compensation. Critics argue that it has produced an increase in top executive compensation. Prior research indeed...

We study both endogenous and exogenous peer effects in worker productivity using an explicit network approach. We find that a 10% increase in average co-worker current productivity increases worker productivity by 5.3%. A 10% increase in average co-worker permanent productivity decreases worker...