Peers at work : Evidence from the lab
Van Veldhuizen, Roel LU
; Oosterbeek, Hessel
and Sonnemans, Joep
(2018)
In PLoS ONE
13(2).
- 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.
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/d119ed4c-f350-454c-8dd9-c431986af71d
- author
- Van Veldhuizen, Roel
LU
; Oosterbeek, Hessel
and Sonnemans, Joep
- publishing date
- 2018-02-01
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- in
- PLoS ONE
- volume
- 13
- issue
- 2
- article number
- e0192038
- publisher
- Public Library of Science (PLoS)
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85041489712
- pmid:29408863
- ISSN
- 1932-6203
- DOI
- 10.1371/journal.pone.0192038
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- no
- id
- d119ed4c-f350-454c-8dd9-c431986af71d
- date added to LUP
- 2019-04-08 14:37:40
- date last changed
- 2025-10-14 13:22:09
@article{d119ed4c-f350-454c-8dd9-c431986af71d,
abstract = {{<p>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.</p>}},
author = {{Van Veldhuizen, Roel and Oosterbeek, Hessel and Sonnemans, Joep}},
issn = {{1932-6203}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{02}},
number = {{2}},
publisher = {{Public Library of Science (PLoS)}},
series = {{PLoS ONE}},
title = {{Peers at work : Evidence from the lab}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0192038}},
doi = {{10.1371/journal.pone.0192038}},
volume = {{13}},
year = {{2018}},
}