Abstract
This study discusses the experience of the implementation of a peer-norm in reducing free riding and conflict problems in teamwork activities. This exploratory experiment is run with two cohorts of students in one of the principal Spanish universities. The educational problem is to control for student potential collusion (with clear free riding episodes) in homework projects performed by assigned groups. The peer-norm intends to control for it. The empirical analysis identifies that the success of this norm is associated with the presence of foreign students. Empirically, the presence of foreign students in each cohort brings an educational and cultural background different from the natives’ one. Their presence in work groups turns out to be the key factor to reduce potentially the degree of collusion in the overall cohort because they seem to be less concerned by the “social retaliation” of the mates.
Highlights
This contribution aims at presenting novel evidence about the creation of an ad-hoc peer norm that is expected to limit the free-riding problem in group activity
This study discusses the outcome of an experiment concerning the introduction of a peer-norm as a signaling device for teamwork tasks
Economic literature allowed formatting a peer-norm yielding to a separating-type equilibrium in a typical signaling game
Summary
This contribution aims at presenting novel evidence about the creation of an ad-hoc peer norm that is expected to limit the free-riding problem in group activity. In line with the established theoretical framework, and in order to control for the aforementioned freerider problems for the selected out-of class activity, I implemented a specific norm to be applied by all the students enrolled in my class This norm has been built on the spirit of being able to eliminate conflicts among group members, identify individual participation to the teamwork (and grading each student appropriately) and limit free-riding or collusive behavior. The econometric analysis identifies that the presence of foreign students (mainly Erasmus students) is the key factor that reduces students’ incentives to either cheating or free-riding In this respect, the adoption of the peer norm allowed achieving the established goal and, a few conclusions about the importance of the heterogeneous composition of the class are put forward as an effective device to reach that goal.
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