Choice Of Peers Research Articles

Random Assignment with Nonrandom Peers: A Structural Approach to Counterfactual Treatment Assessment

Abstract Efforts to leverage peer effects by changing assignment have often fallen short due to endogenous peer choice. To address this, I build a two-part model: agents form networks via continuous linking decisions; conditional on realized networks, outcomes are determined. I provide results on identification of both parts of the model. Using data from a randomized study in India, I estimate the model, assess its performance in out-of-sample prediction, and simulate outcomes under preferential assignment rules. This paper contributes new methodology for identifying effects of alternative assignments in the presence of network endogeneity, as well as identification of network formation models.

클래스넷을 활용한 또래생태 및 학급규범 개선: 학생의 학업 열의와 사회적 행동

The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of teacher-led interventions in the classroom on students’ academic and social behavior. The intervention focused on improving positive peer relationships and classroom norms. To fulfill this purpose, 115 classes (N = 2,858 students) across elementary, middle, and high school levels were divided into an experimental group (n = 66 classes) and a control group (n = 49 classes). Students’ academic engagement (behavior, emotion), social behavior (overt and relational aggression, prosocial behavior), teacher―student relationships (support, conflict), teacher alignment, and peer network attributes were collected at the beginning and end of the semester through student and teacher reports as well as peer nominations. Multilevel analyses and longitudinal social network analyses were utilized to evaluate the impact of the teacher-led intervention. The results of the multilevel analysis revealed that teacher alignment, teacher―student conflict, and an initial level of academic engagement were significant factors to improve academic engagement. In terms of overt and relational aggression, teacher support played a crucial role in the experimental effect, with varying impacts observed in elementary and middle school groups. Longitudinal social network analysis revealed significant classroom intervention effects on prosocial behavior. Both peer choice and socialization (influence) effects were significant in the experimental group, while only the peer influence effect was observed in the control group. This suggests that the class-based intervention contributed to the development of prosocial behaviors as class norms. This study has educational significance in that it highlights the importance of creating positive class norms and peer ecology to enhance students’ academic engagement and social behavior.

The Icing on the Cake. Or Is it Frosting? The Influence of Group Membership on Children's Lexical Choices.

Adults are skilled at using language to construct/negotiate identity and to signal affiliation with others, but little is known about how these abilities develop in children. Clearly, children mirror statistical patterns in their local environment (e.g., Canadian children using zed instead of zee), but do they flexibly adapt their linguistic choices on the fly in response to the choices of different peers? To address this question, we examined the effect of group membership on 7- to 9-year-olds' labeling of objects in a trivia game, exploring whether they were more likely to use a particular label (e.g., sofa vs. couch) if members of their "team" also used that label. In a preregistered study, children (N = 72) were assigned to a team (red or green) and were asked during experimental trials to answer questions-which had multiple possible answers (e.g., blackboard or chalkboard)-after hearing two teammates and two opponents respond to the same question. Results showed that children were significantly more likely to produce labels less commonly used by the community (i.e., dispreferred labels) when their teammates had produced those labels. Crucially, this effect was tied to group membership, and could not be explained by children simply repeating the most recently used label. These findings demonstrate how social processes (i.e., group membership) can guide linguistic variation in children.

A Measure of Financial Statement Benchmarking

ABSTRACT We propose a pairwise measure of financial statement benchmarking (FSB) that captures the degree of overlap in the financial statement line items reported by two firms. We validate FSB by showing its association with actual peer choices of analysts and corporate boards. We then test the practical implications of FSB in the context of strategic peer selection by these parties. We find that analyst (board) chosen peers with low pairwise FSB are more likely to be strategic selections and that the set of peers assembled by an analyst (board) collectively having low FSB is associated with more optimistic earnings forecasts (higher CEO overpay). We also demonstrate alternative applications of FSB by aggregating the pairwise measure at the firm level and decomposing it into finer financial statement-specific components. Our evidence suggests that FSB can be a relevant tool for those using benchmarking applications, including practitioners and academics. Data Availability: Data are available from sources identified in the paper. JEL Classifications: M41.

How the name-letter effect influences peer choice in the P2P economy

This research aims to examine and extend the current understanding of the name-letter effect (NLE) – people’s implicit preference for the letters of their own name – on consumer peer choices in the P2P economy. Drawing on implicit consumer cognition, a new study is conducted to enhance the internal and external validity, which has been identified as weak in the previous literature. The current research successfully shows the NLE in actual consumer choices and reveals that it is an important driver influencing peer choice. Guest consumers on Airbnb disproportionally preferred renting accommodation from a host whose first name resembled their own (based on shared initials or shared unordered letters) rather than from any other host. This NLE increases with an increasing number of letters shared and is more pronounced in the case of first price tier accommodations and when the proximity with the host is high. This finding suggests an implicit name similarity preference that has important practical and ethical implications for the personalization marketing of recommender systems.

The Effects of Facial Trustworthiness and Facial Attractiveness on Children’s Preference Choices

Humans have evolved to acquire the ability to read facial information in order to access information resources more quickly. People can quickly make initial judgments and establish an impression of a person from facial-related information alone. In the social life of adults, facial trustworthiness and facial attractiveness have an important role as important components of facial information. The effects of these two on social interaction are also seen in children, thus influencing their judgment on some decisions. Discuss the impact of facial information received by children on their choices through separate accounts of children’s facial trustworthiness and facial attractiveness on children’s preference judgments, mainly in terms of peer choice preferences and choices in gaming choices. The results of this paper are that both facial credibility and facial attractiveness affect children’s choice preferences, with high trustworthiness and high attractiveness being more likely to be preferred; and that facial trustworthiness and facial attractiveness share similar patterns and can influence each other.

Group Membership Management Framework for Decentralized Collaborative Systems

Scientific and commercial endeavors could benefit from cross-organizational, decentralized collaboration, which becomes the key to innovation. This work addresses one of its challenges, namely efficient access control to assets for distributed data processing among autonomous data centers. We propose a group membership management framework dedicated for realizing access control in decentralized environments. Its novelty lies in a synergy of two concepts: a decentralized knowledge base and an incremental indexing scheme, both assuming a P2P architecture, where each peer retains autonomy and has full control over the choice of peers it cooperates with. The extent of exchanged information is reduced to the minimum required for user collaboration and assumes limited trust between peers. The indexing scheme is optimized for read-intensive scenarios by offering fast queries -- look-ups in precomputed indices. The index precomputation increases the complexity of update operations, but their performance is arguably sufficient for large organizations, as shown by conducted tests. We believe that our framework is a major contribution towards decentralized, cross-organizational collaboration.

Peer benchmarking and CEO compensation: An examination of the community structure of the compensation peer network

AbstractResearch Question/IssueThe increase in executive pay has been attracting attention to the practice of peer benchmarking, which is commonly used to determine CEO compensation. Using a network approach, we construct and analyze the compensation peer network and examine how the structure of the network influences CEO pay.Research Findings/InsightsUsing data on public firms in the period between 2006 and 2020, we find that the peer network exhibits strong community structure and that bridging across communities influences CEO pay. Specifically, CEO pay increases by approximately $10 million as the number of bridging ties increases from 30 to 100, which indicates that obfuscation can result in inflated CEO pay and supports the managerial power perspective.Theoretical/Academic ImplicationsWe empirically distinguish the predicted effect of peer benchmarking on CEO pay as outlined in the market for executive talent and the managerial power perspectives. We show that firms may avoid scrutiny and offer high CEO compensation when they either have a very small number of targeted bridging ties or a very large number of diffused, nontargeted bridging ties in the peer network.Practitioner/Policy ImplicationsThe intent of peer benchmarking was to make CEO compensation practices more transparent, legitimate, and functional; however, our findings indicate that these intentions have not been fully realized and instead benchmarking can be used to inflate CEO pay while avoiding stakeholder scrutiny through obfuscation. These insights provide an opportunity to policy makers to be more effective in encouraging additional transparency and stronger justification for boards' choice of peers.

Factors Influencing Children’s Perception of Gender Roles and Their Psychological Impact: Evidence From Sociology and Psychology

Gender stereotypes are ubiquitous and often have negative consequences. However, they are common in children’s media, toys, and stories. Awareness of these gender stereotypes can hugely influence children’s perception of gender roles. Further, family-related factors, such as familial makeup, parenting, and siblings order, may be crucial in children’s acquisition of gender knowledge, which may later affect children’s wellbeing, career aspirations, peer choices, and academic performance. In order to better understand factors influencing children’s perception of gender roles and what psychological impacts they have, we integrated findings across the fields of sociology and psychology. We reviewed literature on the roles of the media, family, toys, and stories in shaping children’s perception of gender roles across sociological and psychological journals. We only included papers discussing factors and impacts on children aged two to fourteen. The findings from this review indicate that children’s media, toys, and stories commonly portray a disproportionate distribution and stereotypical gender representation of male and female characters. Besides, familial factors can influence children’s perception of gender roles and gender flexibility. Findings underline harmful impacts gender stereotypes may have on children, ranging from mental health problems like depression, anxiety, and somatic complaints to bullying, problematic peer relations, impaired academic performance, and school misconduct. Given the prevalence of gender-stereotypical ideas embedded in parenting and children’s media, toys, and literature and their negative impacts, we should be working to reduce the adverse impact of these stereotypes on children.

Envy or conformity? An empirical investigation of peer influence on the purchase of non-functional items in mobile free-to-play games

Peer influence is considered an important element in shaping an individual’s consumption decisions. Prior studies have noted the differences between strong-tie and weak-tie influences but have yet to examine the underlying mechanisms of these two kinds of peer influences. Hence, this study compared the influences of strong-tie versus weak-tie peers and investigated their influencing mechanisms by proposing two mediating variables (envy regarding the outcomes of peers and conformity to peer choices) in the context of non-functional item consumption in free-to-play mobile games. This study further unveiled how these variables’ mediation of peer influence channels through envy and conformity are adjusted by tie strength and individual differences, as well as their interactions. The model was tested using a scenario-based experiment that integrated the essence of field surveys and lab experiments. This study enriches theory by distinguishing the underlying mechanisms between strong- and weak-tie peer influences. Furthermore, our findings can be extrapolated to services that rely on freemium business models to generate revenue.

The Choice of Peers for Relative Performance Evaluation in Executive Compensation

Abstract Relative performance evaluation (RPE) awards have become an important component of executive compensation. We examine whether RPE awards, particularly the peer group, are structured in a manner consistent with economic theory. For RPE awards using a custom peer group, we find that the custom group is significantly more effective than four plausible alternative peer groups at filtering out common shocks, lowering the cost of compensation, and increasing managerial incentives. For RPE awards using a market index, we find some evidence that firms could have selected a custom set of peers with better filtering properties at a lower cost with similar incentives. For example, firms could have saved around $118,000 in present value terms, on average, for an RPE award had they chosen a custom group comprising their product market peers instead of a market index.

No matter what the name, we’re all the same? Examining ethnic online discrimination in ridesharing marketplaces

Sharing marketplaces emerged as the new Holy Grail of value creation by enabling exchanges between strangers. Identity reveal, encouraged by platforms, cuts both ways: While inducing pre-transaction confidence, it is suspected of backfiring on the information senders with its discriminative potential. This study employs a discrete choice experiment to explore the role of names as signifiers of discriminative peculiarities and the importance of accompanying cues in peer choices of a ridesharing offer. We quantify users’ preferences for quality signals in monetary terms and evidence comparative disadvantage of Middle Eastern descent male names for drivers and co-travelers. It translates into a lower willingness to accept and pay for an offer. Market simulations confirm the robustness of the findings. Further, we discover that females are choosier and include more signifiers of involuntary personal attributes in their decision-making. Price discounts and positive information only partly compensate for the initial disadvantage, and identity concealment is perceived negatively.

IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA AND PEER PRESSURE ON EATING BEHAVIORS OF ADOLESCENTS

Social media is the site used everywhere around the world to interact and communicate with people. The most used social media networks include Facebook, WhatsApp, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat. Social networks usage is negatively associated with the eating choices of students, and it has made lifestyle sedentary.Objectives: The main aim of the study was to determine how the use of social media is linked with the eating habits of students. The secondary objective was to determine how peer choices affected eating choices in students.Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted among 100 university of Lahore students for period of 3 months ranging from 18 to 25 years. Information on how social media and peer pressure influence eating behaviors in students was collected using a questionnaire through purposive sampling technique.Results: The results revealed that the majority of participants were female i.e., 89% and 11% were male. About 43% participants were using Instagram, whereas about 70% participants were using cell phone before laying down. 39% participants were using internet for 10 hours while 30% participants for whole day. Majority 29% participant crave junk food while watching social media, and 74% participants consumed junk food with friends. Adolescents are influenced by peer pressure as 40% participants ate 3 meals and 24% participants ate 4 meals per day with friends.Conclusion: Social media and peer pressure has greatly affected the lifestyle and eating choices of students. Our youth has decreased enjoying healthy meals with family. Thus, future nutrition programs must focus on promoting healthy eating behavior among our youth.

Peer selection and valuation in mergers and acquisitions

Using unique data, this paper examines investment banks’ choice of peers in comparable companies analysis in mergers and acquisitions. We find strong evidence that product market space is amongst the most important factors in peer selection, but Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes, particularly three and four digit codes, do a poor job of categorizing related firms in this setting. Banks strategically select large, high growth peers with high valuation multiples, factors that are also positively related to premiums. Our evidence is consistent with target-firm advisors selecting peers with high valuation multiples to negotiate higher takeover prices.

Early Adolescents' Food Selection After Evaluating the Healthiness of Remote Peers' Food Choices.

This study investigates whether asking early adolescents to evaluate the food choices of remote peers improves their own food selection. Participants were students from fifth (N = 219, Mage = 9.30 years) and sixth grades (N = 248, Mage = 10.28 years) of varying nationalities living in the United Arab Emirates (race and ethnicity were not collected). Students saw peers' healthy or unhealthy food choices before picking their own food. In some conditions, students also critically evaluated the healthiness of the peers' choices. Evaluation of peer choices led to healthier decisions (d = .53) to the point that it offsets the negative impact of observing unhealthy peer choices. This effect is larger for sixth graders compared to fifth graders.

Peer Selection and Valuation in Mergers and Acquisitions

Using unique data, this paper examines investment banks’ choice of peers in comparable companies analysis in mergers and acquisitions. We find strong evidence that product market space is amongst the most important factors in peer selection, but we provide evidence indicating that Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes, particularly three- and four-digit codes, do a poor job of categorizing related firms in this setting. Banks strategically select large, high growth peers with high valuation multiples, factors that are also positively related to premiums. Our evidence is consistent with target-firm advisors selecting peers with high valuation multiples to negotiate higher takeover prices.

Exiting Detroit for school: inequitable choice sets and school quality

ABSTRACT Research has documented the complexity of parent decision-making within school choice marketplaces, including the ways in which individual preferences, social networks, and geography influence where parents choose to enroll their children in school. Yet, parent choices are constrained by the ways in which these dynamics intersect with existing school characteristics and locations. By constructing unique choice set ‘landscapes’ for 194 Detroit neighborhoods, taking into account where current neighbors attend school in the city, this paper contributes new evidence on the influence of peer enrollment on school choosing, and how peer choice sets differ from students’ nearest schools. We find that parents are responsive to lower quality schools in their choice sets when choosing to exit and that choice set quality varies by race, with Black students having lower quality schools in their Detroit choice sets.

Creativity in temporal social networks: how divergent thinking is impacted by one's choice of peers.

Creativity is viewed as one of the most important skills in the context of future-of-work. In this paper, we explore how the dynamic (self-organizing) nature of social networks impacts the fostering of creative ideas. We run six trials (N = 288) of a web-based experiment involving divergent ideation tasks. We find that network connections gradually adapt to individual creative performances, as the participants predominantly seek to follow high-performing peers for creative inspirations. We unearth both opportunities and bottlenecks afforded by such self-organization. While exposure to high-performing peers is associated with better creative performances of the followers, we see a counter-effect that choosing to follow the same peers introduces semantic similarities in the followers' ideas. We formulate an agent-based simulation model to capture these intuitions in a tractable manner, and experiment with corner cases of various simulation parameters to assess the generality of the findings. Our findings may help design large-scale interventions to improve the creative aptitude of people interacting in a social network.

Co-constructing Frames of Peer Help during Writers Workshop in a Second-grade Bilingual Class

ABSTRACT While research has shown that young children draw upon language ideologies to manage the language choices of peers, little is known about how they use language to negotiate academic identities during peer–peer interactions. Integrating theories of language ideologies, social identities, and frames, this article examines how one teacher and two students in a second-grade bilingual class navigated language ideologies in a transitional bilingual program and negotiated frames of linguistic and academic competency during Writers Workshop. The analysis demonstrates the ways in which the teacher and two students interpreted language ideologies and co-constructed academic frames within which students expressed smart identities by helping peers to complete English writing through bilingual exchanges. These frames indexed district-wide conflicting ideologies of cooperation and individualism and English prioritization that position Spanish as a medium of instruction rather than a linguistic goal.

The Impact of the Use of Cross-Border Compensation Peers: The Case of Canadian Companies Using U.S. Peers

CEO compensation in Canada is significantly lower than that in the United States. In this article, we examine the choice of, and impact on Canadian CEO Compensation, using U.S. firms in their compensation peer groups. Using a two-stage model to control for endogeneity, while we find the choice of peers associated with labor market factors, we still find that the use of U.S. peers positively associated with higher Canadian CEO compensation. This finding is after controlling for the traditional determinants of CEO compensation, as well as use of domestic peers. While this result holds for all components of the compensation package, we also find that having U.S. peers is associated with a greater proportion of equity in the compensation package. Our results are robust to various formulations including change models and using an earlier time period when peer disclosure was voluntary.