Peer Ability Research Articles

Peer Influence in the Workplace: Evidence from an Enterprise Digital Platform

We investigate how the sharing of peer success on an enterprise digital platform influences other workers’ work effort. We focus on one important advantage that organizations gain from using digital platforms—the ability to regulate the content of the messages by incorporating various elements about peers. Specifically, we examined two types of peer success messages: messages that highlight a peer’s effort (i.e., effort-focused success messages) and messages that highlight a peer’s ability (i.e., ability-focused success messages). Using data from a group of sales workers in an information technology service company, as well as an experiment with online participants, we found that both ability-focused success messages and effort-focused success messages can motivate workers to work harder, although we observed important heterogeneity in the responses. In particular, workers’ responses to effort-focused messages remained strong regardless of social distance between the worker and the peer. In contrast, workers’ response to ability-focused messages was stronger when the messages praised the ability of peers who were socially close but not that of peers who were socially distant.

The long‐run educational benefits of high‐achieving classrooms

AbstractThis paper examines how placement in high‐achieving classrooms within high school impacts students’ short‐ and longer‐term academic outcomes. Our setting is a large and selective Chinese high school, where first‐year students are separated into high‐achieving and regular classrooms based on their performance on a standardized exam. Classrooms differ in terms of peer ability, teacher quality, and class size, as well as level and pace of instruction. Using newly collected administrative data and a regression discontinuity design, we show that high‐achieving classrooms improve math test scores by 23% of a standard deviation, with effects persisting throughout the 3 years of high school. Impacts on performance in Chinese and English language subjects are more muted. Importantly, we find that high‐achieving classrooms raise enrollment in elite universities by 17 percentage points, as they substantially increase scores on the national college entrance exam—the sole determinant of university admission in China. We provide suggestive evidence that the most likely mechanism driving our results is exposure to higher‐quality teachers.

Ability composition in the class and the school performance of immigrant students

Using longitudinal data from the Italian National Institute for the Evaluation of the Education System (INVALSI), this paper investigates whether the ability of peers affects the educational attainment of immigrant students. We not only focus on the average quality of peers in the class, but also further investigate which part of the ability distribution of peers drives the effect, by assessing the role played by the extreme tails of the ability distribution. Our empirical strategy addresses students’ endogenous sorting into classes by exploiting the within-student across-subjects variation in achievements and the simultaneity problem by using predetermined measures of peers’ ability. We show that peers’ ability matters. While native students are mostly influenced by the average quality of their peers, immigrant children are detrimentally affected by the share of very low achievers in the classroom. Our findings provide valuable guidance to policymakers concerning the allocation of students to classes in order to foster immigrant students’ integration and learning.

Experiences of peer counsellors in supporting exclusive breastfeeding in southern India: An exploratory qualitative study.

Peer counsellors are effective in addressing a variety of health challenges, including exclusive breastfeeding (EBF). Providing education and support from a person of similar background and experience has been an important adjunct to the practice of health workers for the past 50 years. It is an exploratory qualitative study. Twenty-two peer counsellors. In-depth Interview in the community. To better understand the experiences of these important health workers, we conducted qualitative interviews with 22 peer counsellors who participated in a research study in Belagavi District, Karnataka, India. Transcripts of the interviews were organised and assigned codes by the research team. Experience of Peer counsellor's role in the community to improve breastfeeding practices. Peer counsellors had a good understanding of the larger study and of their role. Analysis of the transcripts identified three themes: personal satisfaction; the effect on the larger circle of family and community; and ideas for future programming. The positive experiences and the ability of peers to be trained in counselling women around EBF support their use in breastfeeding support and other areas of health education. The women from the community who served as peer counsellors were enthusiastic and satisfied about their work, which provided them with opportunities to do meaningful community work outside of their household routines. Use of the peer counsellor model to deliver a specific objective like improvement in EBF rates, immunisation or mental health in integration with healthcare providers can help in achieving desired goals.

Knowledge sharing via common auditors: evidence from corporate R&D investment

PurposeDespite the importance of research and development (R&D), information on its value is not readily available to managers. This study aims to explore the role of common auditors, who audit multiple peer firms in the product market, in clients’ R&D investment decisions. This study highlights common auditors as information intermediaries who affect corporate R&D investment, focusing on the importance of knowledge resources in R&D investment and the limited ability of peers’ public information to communicate the value of R&D.Design/methodology/approachThis study employs pairwise data of firm-peer-year observations to identify a common auditor who provides audit services to the focal firm and its peer firm. This study examines how a firm’s R&D investment changes when the firm’s incumbent auditor provides audit services to peers and analyzes various factors that moderate the effect of common auditors.FindingsPeer firms audited by the same auditor make similar R&D investment decisions. This effect is more pronounced when the auditor specializes more in auditing R&D, when the auditor has a long-term client relationship, and when the firms exhibit a higher level of demand for incremental information relevant to R&D investment. Consistent with the beneficial role of common auditors, firms that are more responsive to auditor-provided information engage more actively in innovation activities in subsequent years.Originality/valueThis study deepens the understanding of how networks created by common auditors facilitate information flow among client firms and shape these firms’ R&D investment decisions.

Ordinal rank and the structure of ability peer effects

Exposure to high-ability peers entails positive learning externalities, but it also decreases students’ academic self-concept because of lower ordinal ability rank. We show that, as a result, the linear-in-means parameter identifies a composite (i.e., reduced form) effect. We illustrate the empirical relevance of this issue using data from two experiments that randomly assign students to groups. We find that the structural effect of mean peer ability estimated by a model that includes rank is much larger than the reduced form effect obtained when rank is omitted. This finding also holds in non-linear and heterogeneous peer effects models and helps clarify the mechanisms behind the effects of ability tracking policies.

Identification of academic peer effects in college: Does data aggregation matter?

<span lang="EN-US">This study exploited random roommate assignments in a small Chinese college to estimate the causal effects of roommates’ scores on the national College Entrance Test (CET) on first-year students’ Grade Point Average (GPA). Analyzing data on an entire cohort of enrolled students, we found that the level of aggregation, for both the peer-ability measure and one’s own academic-outcome measure, matters for the identification of academic peer effects. Specifically, while roommates’ average CET score has a barely significant impact, the highest-scoring roommate’s CET score has a strong positive impact. Peer effects are also larger for one’s GPA for required courses than that of elective courses. Finally, peer effects in both types of courses decline over time while the effects of one’s own CET score increase over time, suggesting that students in this college tend to substitute their own ability for peer ability as they become more academically independent.</span>

Gender bias in the classroom: A network study on self and peer ability attribution

Stereotypes can contribute to the gender gap in STEM by shaping people’s expectations on their own and others’ performance. When gender is salient, expectations on task performance might reflect gender constructs even when information on individual abilities is available. We tested this hypothesis in a network study on students from ten high school classes in Milan, Italy. We asked the students to choose the four best candidates from their classmates for three hypothetical inter-class competitions in reading, math, and science. Results showed that females were more likely to be nominated for the reading competition but less likely for science. We did not find any statistically significant results for the math competition. We also found that female students were less likely to nominate themselves for any competition, regardless of the subject, even controlling for their own performance and self-concept.

Enrolling at university and the social influence of peers

Abstract This article studies peer effects on the decision to enroll at university. To determine the social influence of peers, we use a measure encompassing the two major dimensions of social influence in the classroom: the ability and capacity of peers to exchange information about study options. This paper uses French administrative data on the universe of first year applicants to a single university over seven consecutive cohorts. We exploit idiosyncratic variations in the proportion of peers advised to change their educational choice. We find that our variable of interest has a small but negative and significant effect on the individual decision to attend university and observe stronger peer effects among groups of students of similar gender or socio-economic background. We also find a weaker impact of the proportion of peers advised to change their educational choice on the individuals of higher level of academic ability.

Hubungan Self-Regulated Learning Dengan Dukungan Teman Sebaya Serata Pengaruhnya Terhadap Prestasi Akademik Pada Mahasiswa Fakultas Kedokteran Universitas Riau

Self-regulated learning is a student learning method that is active and independent to achieve academic goals by using cognitive learning, self-motivation and behavioral control. One of the factors that can influence self-regulated learning is peer support. This study aims to assess the correlation between the ability of self-regulated learning and peer support in students of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Riau, and to determine its effect on academic achievement. Respondents in this study were 147 students of class 2019. The research data consisted of the results of the self-regulated learning ability questionnaire and the peer support questionnaire, transcript of the CBT exam results, the GPA transcripts. The Pearson analysis showed that there was a significant correlation between the results of the ability of self-regulated learning and peers support with a p value of 0.00 (<0.05) and a positive correlation of 0.464. The effect of self-regulated learning ability on academic achievement, obtained a p-value of 0.043. There was a significant difference between the results of the CBT with low, medium and high self-regulated learning abilities. There was no difference between the Grade Point Average (GPA) based on the independent learning ability of students of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Riau with a p value of 0.43.

The effect of attending schools with higher ability peers on memory and language abilities in later‐life

AbstractBackgroundPeers influence adolescent behavior, educational, and health outcomes. Evaluating the influence of school‐mates’ cognitive aptitude on later‐life cognition is important for understanding the role of school segregation and tracking in establishing inequality. Yet, few studies have the data to study this. We used a national high‐school based study followed up 58 years later to examine if attending schools with more skilled peers predicts individual later‐life cognition.MethodIn 1960, about 5% of US high schools participated in Project Talent (n=377,000), where students reported demographics and completed aptitude tests. Some of these students were enrolled in 2018/2019 (mean age=74.6) in the Project Talent Aging Study (PTAS). For each PTAS participant, we calculated peer cognitive aptitude as the average of cognitive aptitudes of all other students who were in the same high school. The outcome, later‐life cognition, was operationalized as z‐score composites for language (semantic and phonemic fluency) and memory (CERAD learning list and delayed recall). For each outcome we estimated multilevel linear models to account for school clustering. All models were adjusted for age, sex/gender, parental education; secondary models were also adjusted for the participant’s own adolescent cognitive aptitude. To examine heterogeneity of the association, we evaluated interactions of peer ability with sex/gender, and the participant’s own adolescent cognitive aptitude.ResultParticipants were predominantly non‐Hispanic White (80.4%) and women (52.6%). Attending schools with peers who averaged 1 standard deviation higher on cognitive aptitude predicted better later‐life cognition prior to adjustment for own aptitude (language: β=0.162, 95% CI: 0.120, 0.205; memory: β=0.084, 95% CI: 0.041, 0.126), but not after adjustment. However, for women (β=0.045, 95% CI: ‐0.012, 0.101) and those with below mean adolescent cognitive aptitude (β=0.091; 95% CI: 0.016, 0.166), attending schools with higher ability peers predicted better later‐life language scores even after own ability was considered. There was no moderation of these relationships by race/ethnicity.ConclusionPeople with below average cognitive aptitude in adolescence had better language function 58 years later if they attended high schools with high aptitude peers. Future work will examine the plausible life‐course mechanisms to address why certain groups benefit more from schooling contextual factors.

The Persistent Effects of Short-Term Peer Groups on Performance: Evidence from a Natural Experiment in Higher Education

This paper studies the persistent effects of short-term peer exposure on long-run performance in a college setting. I exploit the random assignment of undergraduates to peer groups during a mandatory orientation week and track the students’ performance over four years (until graduation). Assignment to orientation week groups with high levels of peer ability is associated with lower performance during the first year at college and a higher probability of early dropout. These adverse effects are driven entirely by the exposure of low-ability students to high-ability peers. Beyond the first year, exposure to higher peer ability during the orientation week negatively affects selection into the college’s most popular major (business administration) and final grade point average. Taken together, the findings suggest that the composition of short-term peer groups matters for individual choices and long-run performance outcomes. This paper was accepted by Yan Chen, decision analysis.

Do ability peer effects matter for academic and labor market outcomes?

We follow students majoring in Economics, Business, and Accounting in a prestigious Brazilian university up to 15 years after admission to estimate the effects of peer ability on academic and labor market outcomes. We exploit the variation in cohorts’ composition across time and students’ exogenous allocation across classrooms to deal with selection issues. Our results suggest that peer ability does not significantly affect students’ short-term academic outcomes but has positive long-term impacts on formal labor market participation and the decision to enroll in graduate studies. Our findings suggest that peers in young adulthood may have a more considerable influence on behaviors than on short-term academic outcomes.

The Importance of Peer Quality for Completion of Higher Education

Using detailed Danish administrative data covering the entire population of students entering higher education in the period 1985 to 2010, we investigate the importance of a student’s peers in higher education for the decision to drop out. We use high school GPA as a predetermined measure of student ability and idiosyncratic variation in peer composition across cohorts within the same education and institution. Our findings suggest that peer ability is an important determinant of students’ drop out decisions as well as later labor market outcomes. Overall, we find that a one standard deviation increase in peers’ high school GPA reduces the probability of dropping out by 4.6 percentage points. This number masks considerable heterogeneity by level and field of study. Allowing for a more flexible specification, we find that low quality peers have adverse effects on the probability of dropping out while high quality peers have beneficial effects. These effects are more pronounced for lower ability students.

Peers in the Field: The Role of Ability and Gender in Peer Effects among Agricultural Workers

This article presents evidence on peer effects among U.S. agricultural workers. On average, we find that a 10% increase in peer productivity increases focal worker productivity by 2.8%. This effect is modified by the ability and gender of workers and peers. Exceptionally slow workers are least responsive to peers and have pronounced negative spillovers on the productivity of their coworkers—their presence decreases productivity by 2%. Male workers are more responsive to their peers than female workers—a 10% increase in peer productivity increases the productivity of men by 3% and women by 2.6%. Workers are also generally more responsive to peers of similar ability and gender. Workers increase their speed the most when in the presence of peers with abilities just above their own. Male workers are more responsive to male peers than female peers, and female workers are more responsive to female peers.

The Importance of Peer Quality for Completion of Higher Education

Using detailed Danish administrative data covering the entire population of students entering higher education in the period 1985 to 2010, we investigate the importance of a student's peers in higher education for the decision to drop out. We use high school GPA as a predetermined measure of student ability and idiosyncratic variation in peer composition across cohorts within the same education and institution. Our findings suggest that peer ability is an important determinant of students' drop out decisions as well as later labor market outcomes. Overall, we find that a one standard deviation increase in peers' high school GPA reduces the probability of dropping out by 4.6 percentage points. This number masks considerable heterogeneity by level and field of study. Allowing for a more flexible specification, we find that low quality peers have adverse effects on the probability of dropping out while high quality peers have beneficial effects. These effects are more pronounced for lower ability students.

U.S. Innovation and Chinese Competition for Innovation Production

We examine competition in the market for innovation and show that it is distinct from the widely studied issue of competition for existing products. We introduce new measures of information gathering capacity by Chinese firms based on industry agglomeration and internet penetration, which predict actual internet downloads of U.S. firm filings by Chinese internet users. Increases in the ability of Chinese industry peers to gather knowledge through the internet are followed by reductions in R&D and subsequent patents, and corresponding increased patenting by Chinese firms. The new Chinese patents also cite the patents of U.S. firms at a high rate, consistent with direct intellectual property competition.

Super peer selection strategy in peer‐to‐peer networks based on learning automata

SummaryA super peer is a peer that has the highest capacity in comparison with other peers in the network. It is trying to reduce the load of the rest of the peers and improve network performance. Selecting a super peer in a peer‐to‐peer–based network is a very crucial challenge. As the ability of peers are very different, by considering capacity of each peer and selecting a proper role, we can use network components much more efficiently. Because of the dynamicity of these networks, comparative methods of selecting super peers is of special importance. Comparative selection is continuously trying to select proper super peer. In recent studies, learning automata was introduced as a powerful learning model to solve this issue. In most of the studies, learning automata with an S model is employed. In this article, another selection method of learning automata with a P model environment is presented and its capability for super peer selection is shown. Moreover, simulation results show that removing some of the super peers would result in better performance in terms of inversion time in the high level of super‐peer capacity, required time for selecting proper super peer, and super peer tolerance.

Emotional intelligence of 3- to 6-year-olds and parenting style: Peer communication ability as a mediator

We examined the associations of parenting style and children's emotional intelligence with the children's peer communication ability, focusing especially on the mediating role of peer communication ability in the relationship between parenting style and children's emotional intelligence. We recruited 306 parents in the cities of Hangzhou, Changchun, and Lanzhou in China to participate in the study. Participants reported on their parenting style and the emotional intelligence and peer communication ability of their 3- to 6-year-old children. We used structural equation modeling to explore the mechanism of how parenting style influenced the emotional intelligence of the children. The results showed that (a) there were significant positive correlations between parenting style and the emotional intelligence and peer communication ability of their children, (b) parenting style had a significant influence on children's emotional intelligence, and (c) children's peer communication ability played a partial mediating role in the influence of parenting style on children's emotional intelligence.

Ordinal Rank, Peer Composition, and Ability Tracking in University. Evidence from a Randomized Experiment

We use data from two experiments that randomly assign students to groups to show that, so long as ordinal rank has a causal effect on educational achievement, estimates of the effects of peer ability composition obtained from models that omit rank are downward biased. This finding holds both in the standard linear-in-means model as well as in models that allow for non-linear and heterogeneous peer effects, and contributes to explain why previous studies have detected only modest effects of peer ability on achievement. We also illustrate how this finding helps understand the mechanisms behind the effects of ability tracking policies.