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Despite a vast literature on peer effects and compositional effects in education, according to Rutter & Maughan (2002), “there has been much less investigation of the ways in which they operate in schools” (p. 469). Thrupp, Lauder & Robinson (2002) note that “there is remarkably little consensus over the nature and size of school compositional and peer effects” (abstract), which could stem from the fact that school compositional effects have been “inadequately theorised and poorly operationalised” (p. 484). These perspectives are shared by Liu et al (2015) who claim that “there are no comprehensive theories explaining the mechanism of school composition effects and most researchers treat it as a ‘black box’.” (p. 424) From these perspectives, the aim of the study was to apply a synthesis of the Frame Factor Theory (FFT) and the Opportunity to Learn-perspective (OTL) as a theory on peer effects and compositional effects in education. Since the FFT predicts that the class composition, measured as students’ prior knowledge and aptitude, will have steering and limiting effects on teachers’ instruction, in turn affecting students’ achievement, it was argued that this could be interpreted as one mechanism generating peer effects. The FFT predicts that the steering and limiting effect of class composition will affect timing, pacing and content covered in instruction, which indicates that there is a theoretical overlap between the FFT and OTL. A synthesised theoretical model was operationalized and tested with Swedish TIMSS 2011-data (n = 3928) in a multilevel structural equation model. The main FFT-construct in the study was a latent variable of “Limitations on instruction”, derived from items in the TIMSS teacher survey. Also, a variable of coverage of advanced content was derived from TIMSS 19 topics through assessments by Swedish 8th grade teachers in mathematics. The study revealed that class composition, measured as class-SES, to some extent was related to tea

This paper explores the contagion effects of norm-violating behavior across decision situations.Through a series of laboratory and field experiments, we empirically establish the conditions under which norm-breaking behavior in one decision situation leads individuals who observe this to violatennorms in other, distinct decision situations. Our laboratory findings show that these spillover effects are more pronounced when the norms underlying the decision situations are perceived to be similar. However, spillovers can also affect decision situations governed by relatively dissimilar norms if the observers of norm violations have had the opportunity to first violate the same norm as the observed violator themselves. In an accompanying field experiment, we underscore the economic importance of norm similarity for spillover effects. When workers are exposed to information about celebrities evading taxes, they exhibit significantly higher rates of workplace theft than those in the control group, yet this exposure does not negatively affect work morale.

Community-led initiatives can play an important role in reducing the barriers to the adoption of energy-saving measures in homes. Quantitative insights about the role of communities and their leaders in energy transition are largely missing however. This paper exploits unique data on 78 community-led retrofitting campaigns run during 2014–2020 in the Netherlands, and studies econometrically the role of block leaders — the residents who managed the communities. Special focus lies on the analysis of the peer externalities that block leaders exerted on other community members. Contrary to much of the literature, peer externalities here are not driven by visibility and imitation, but by offering access to information and by cheap talk. The results show evidence of a spatial distance decay in peer effects, with the largest effect within 200 m of a block leader. Our insights suggest that communities should optimally spread out leaders geographically and select leaders whose dwellings are representative of the community’s existing building stock.

Previous research from the U.S. has suggested that black-white interaction in school can reduce prejudice and increase the prevalence of interracial relationships. We test whether this result holds also for natives and immi-grants in Europe - groups whose interaction is plausibly more constrained by religious and cultural differences. Specifically, we study whether exposure to immigrant origin peers in school affects natives' probability to have a child with a partner with non-Western background. Identification is based on variation in immigrant exposure across cohorts within schools in Sweden. We find that natives are affected by exposure to opposite-sex peers: native girls (boys) are more likely to have a child with a partner with non-Western background when exposed to immigrant origin boys (girls). In contrast to previous studies, we find no effects from same-sex peer exposure.

This study draws on previous empirical research within the fields of opportunity to learn (OTL) and peer effects in education. In a recent study, it was argued that the Frame Factor Theory (FFT) could be applied as a theoretical framework to the issue of peer effects in education. Since the FFT predicts that the class composition measured as students’ prior knowledge and aptitude, will have steering and limiting effects on teachers’ instruction, in turn affecting students’ achievement, it was argued that this could be interpreted as one mechanism generating peer effects. Empirical findings from analysis of TIMSS 2015 data supported the hypothesis. Possibly due to poor construct validity, the previous study couldn’t verify the modus operandi of the mechanisms. The FFT predicts that the steering and limiting effect of class composition will affect timing, pacing, and content covered in instruction. From this perspective, the aim of this article is to initiate a synthesis of the OTL- and FFT-perspectives, where OTL-findings on content coverage are included in an FFT-model predicting peer effects in education. A synthesized theoretical model is operationalized and tested with Swedish TIMSS 2011 data (n = 3,928) in a multilevel structural equation model. The main FFT-construct in the study is a latent variable of “Limitations on instruction”, derived from items in the TIMSS teacher survey. Also, a variable of coverage of advanced content is derived from TIMSS 19 topics through assessments by Swedish eighth grade teachers in mathematics. The study revealed that class composition, measured as class-SES, to some extent was related to teachers’ instruction in class, through its limitations on instruction, but it was also related to the content that can be covered in instruction. Results reveal a negative relation between students’ average age of arrival to Sweden on the between-class level and advanced content covered. Through both of these effects, individual students’ achi

Measuring individual productivity (or equivalently distributing the overall productivity) in a network structure of workers displaying peer effects has been a subject of ongoing interest in many areas ranging from academia to industry. In this paper, we propose a novel approach based on cooperative game theory that takes into account the peer effects of worker productivity represented by a complete bipartite network of interactions. More specifically, we construct a series of cooperative games where the characteristic function of each coalition of workers is equal to the sum of each worker intrinsic productivity as well as the productivity of other workers within a distance discounted by an attenuation factor. We show that these (truncated) games are balanced and converge to a balanced game when the distance of influence grows large. We then provide an explicit formula for the Shapley value and propose an alternative coalitionally stable distribution of productivity which is computationally much more tractable than the Shapley value. Lastly, we characterize this alternative distribution based on three sensible properties of a logistic network. This analysis enhances our understanding of game-theoretic analysis within logistics networks, offering valuable insights into the peer effects’ impact when assessing the overall productivity and its distribution among workers.

eward-based crowdfunding is becoming a very attractive funding alternative for early-stage entrepreneurial initiatives. Among thefactors that may influence the success of such campaigns is herd behavior, i.e., the tendency to mimic the funding decisions of previous backers.The herd effect has been shown to be robust in previous research as a rational act that supports campaigns more likely to achieve the funding goal, i.e., to succeed. In this paper we go beyond that empirical result from previous literature and analyze whether herding behavior occurs in reward crowdfunding even without the rational factor, as a simple imitation of previous behavior, regardless of the rational motivation for project success.For this purpose, a field experiment is designed and executed in a real crowdfunding campaign for a cultural project on the Verkami platform, themost powerful platform for cultural projects in Spain. This field experiment is designed to analyze the causality between the decisions of previousbackers on the color of a reward and the choices of subsequent backers. The results clearly show non-rational herd behavior in the choices ofsubsequent patrons in reward crowdfunding, who mostly choose the same color as the initial contributions. Practical implications for campaigndesign and its possible consequences are discussed in the article., el crowdfunding de recompensa es una interesante alternativa de financiación para iniciativas emprendedoras en su etapa inicial. Entre los factores que facilitan el éxito en dichas campañas destaca el comportamiento gregario, es decir, la tendencia a imitar las decisiones de financiación de los anteriores mecenas. El efecto gregario, o de rebaño, se ha demostrado robusto en investigaciones anteriores como un acto racional que apoya campañas con mayor probabilidad de conseguir el objetivo de financiación impuesto, su éxito. En este artículo se va más allá de ese resultado empírico de la literatura previa y se analiza si el comportamiento gregario se produce en el crowdfunding de recompensa incluso sin factor racional, como simple imitación de un comportamiento anterior, independientemente de la motivación racional del éxito del proyecto. Para ello, se diseña y ejecuta un experimento en una campaña real de financiación de un proyecto cultural en la plataforma Verkami, la más potente para proyectos culturales en España. Este experimento de campo permite analizar la causalidad entre las decisiones de los mecenas anterioressobre el color de una recompensa y las elecciones de los mecenas siguientes. Los resultados muestran claramente un comportamiento gregario no racional en las elecciones de los siguientes mecenas en el crowdfunding de recompensa, que escogen mayoritariamente el mismo color que las aportaciones iniciales. El artículo confirma la importancia del componente no racional en la conducta gregaria en crowdfunding.

Despite a vast literature, previous research into compositional effects and peer effects in education has remarked on the lack of consensus within the field. To date, peer effects in education and students’ different opportunities to learn in school has been studied separately. In this study, it is argued that these perspectives need to be synthesized. A multilevel structural equation model (M-SEM) is derived from such a synthesis of the Frame Factor Theory (FFT) and Opportunity to Learn (OTL) and tested on Swedish TIMSS 2011-data (n=3928). The results indicate that class composition affects the presence of limitations on instruction and advanced content coverage, both of which is related to opportunities to learn and individual students’ achievement in mathematics.

This essay investigates the impact of classroom gender composition on the mental health of adolescent students. Using data from the Health Behaviours of School-aged Children survey in the Czech Republic, we exploit idiosyncratic classroom variation in the gender composition within the same schools across different grades. We find that a higher proportion of female peers in the classroom has a detrimental effect on male students’ mental health, whereas no comparable effects are observed among their female counterparts. Specifically, this effect is primarily driven by an increase in symptoms such as feeling low and nervous. Importantly, our study reveals non-linearity in the classroom gender composition effects, suggesting that a reduction of the number of girls in the classroom may not always be advantageous for boys, as its effectiveness depends on the initial gender composition.

This thesis consists of four self-contained papers within political economy and economic sociology. The first paper studies how the 2015 refugee wave impacted the vote share of the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats (SD) during the 2018 Swedish parliamentary elections. I find that while there is an overall positive effect of immigration on the SD votes, the magnitude of the effect differs considerably depending on pre-influx municipal characteristics. In the second paper, I study how releases of radioactive fallout from the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident affected environmentalist voting in subsequent elections in Sweden. The results show that in municipalities affected by fallout, green voting increased. The Chernobyl premium om the green vote remained for around one decade after the accident. Detailed-individual level survey data suggests that opposition to nuclear power increased in affected areas after the accident. The third paper examines how implementing blended learning at university affects grade outcomes when compared to online and campus teaching. The results show that female students with affluent parents were the relative winners of blended learning, both compared to other groups who were subject to blended learning, but also compared to their own performance when all teaching is on campus. Survey data suggests that this group of students have broader social networks, which facilitates communication with peers and improves grades. In the fourth paper, I analyze how the academic performance of university students is affected by their own and their peers' socioeconomic status and beauty. The results suggest that a student's own socioeconomic status and beauty affect grades positively, and that these traits in peers also have a positive impact on grades. For the peer effects, I provide evidence for both a direct spillover channel, and for an indirect channel according to which peer beauty improves well-being among students.

Individuals are embedded in a network of relationships and they can be victims, bystanders, or perpetrators of bullying and harassment. Each individual decides non-cooperatively how much effort to exert in preventing misbehavior. Each indi- vidual’s optimal effort depends on the contextual effect, the social multiplier effect and the social conformity effect. We characterize the Nash equilibrium and we derive an inter-centrality measure for finding the key player who once isolated increases the most the aggregate effort. An individual is more likely to be the key player if she is influencing many other individuals, she is exerting a low effort because of her characteristics, and her neighbors are strongly influenced by her. The key player policy increases substantially the aggregate effort and the targeted player should never be selected randomly. The key player is likely to remain the key player in presence of social workers except if she is becoming much less influential due to her closeness to social workers. Finally, we consider alternative policies (e.g. training bystanders for helping victims) and compare them to the policy of isolating the key player.

In chapter 1, this dissertation investigates how promotion policies impact advanced education attainment on employees throughout a career. Using administrative data from the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), I leverage a natural experiment where academic credentials were permanently masked from promotion consideration. I show the policy influenced the premium of a graduate degree for career advancement opportunities. I then exploit an event study and difference-in-differences design to find employees are 14 percentage points less likely to complete a master's degree when education credentials are no longer considered for promotion. I also show attendance at for-profit institutions declined substantially after the policy reform. In chapter 2, I examine workplace peer effects on advanced education attainment. Using administrative data from the DoD and conditional exogeneous assignment of employees to workplace, I provide empirical evidence that coworkers’ education investment behavior increases the likelihood of using Employer-Provided Educational Assistance (EPEA) benefits to start and eventually complete a graduate degree. In chapter 3, I analyze trainees' ordinal rank across cognitive and physical ability within an initial job training program. Using administrative data from the DoD and conditional random assignment of trainees to peer groups, I test whether rank effects vary across contemporaneous training and long-term career outcomes. I find cognitive ordinal rank, measured by an individual's score on the Armed Forces Qualification Test (AFQT), has a meaningful impact on completing initial training into the U.S. Air Force (USAF). I also show physical ordinal rank, measured by an individual's initial fitness score, also affects initial job training performance. Both sets of ranking effects impact follow-on disciplinary outcomes and vary by gender.

Objective of the study: The subject of the study are participatory budgets – social innovations used by local municipalities to involve citizens in local budgetary decisions with roots in Brazil. The main objective was to determine how being part of a social network affects the decision to introduce participatory budgets made by municipalities in Poland, where a remarkable spread of the innovation has been observed since the early 2010s. Methodology: Spatial autocorrelation tests and visualizations were used to uncover clusters of communes with most similar or dissimilar characteristics. Originality/Relevance: Novelty of the study approach lies in the utilization of an own database – with the intention to overcome the problem of data insufficiency, typical of related research. Main results: The presence of spatial proximity-based peer effects was confirmed in the study. The concentration of innovators has remained spatially uneven, which is to be linked to e.g. the cross-regionally diverse forms of social capital. The data-based study design allows to explore participatory budgets as products of social networks and not only individual strategies, as evidenced by numerous case studies in the field. Methodological contributions: The study demonstrates the relevance of collecting longitudinal data for the development of research on participatory budgets. Social/management contributions: Insights from the study are of practical value for recent and future. adopters, wishing to understand the broader relevance of their policies, as well as for higher level policy-makers trying to better adapt their legal frameworks to the current and future waves of innovators., Objectivo do estudo: O tema do estudo são orçamentos participativos - inovações sociais utilizadas pelos municípios locais para envolver os cidadãos nas decisões orçamentais locais com raízes no Brasil. O principal objetivo era determinar como o facto de fazer parte de uma rede social afeta a decisão de introduzir orçamentos participativos feitos pelos municípios na Polónia, onde se tem observado uma notável difusão da inovação desde o início da década de 2010. Metodologia: Testes de autocorrelação espacial e visualizações foram utilizados para desvendar aglomerados de comunas com características mais semelhantes ou dissimilares. Originalidade/Relevância: A novidade da abordagem do estudo reside na utilização de uma base de dados própria – com a intenção de superar o problema da insuficiência de dados, típico da investigação relacionada. Principais resultados: A presença de efeitos espaciais baseados na proximidade foi confirmada no estudo. A concentração de inovadores tem permanecido espacialmente desigual, que deve ser ligada, por exemplo, às formas inter-regionais diversas do capital social. O desenho do estudo baseado em dados permite explorar orçamentos participativos como produtos de redes sociais e não apenas estratégias individuais, como evidenciado por numerosos estudos de caso no terreno. Contribuições metodológicas: O estudo demonstra a relevância da recolha de dados longitudinais para o desenvolvimento da investigação sobre orçamentos participativos. Contribuições sociais/de gestão: As contribuições do estudo são de valor prático para os adotantes recentes e futuros, que desejam compreender a relevância mais ampla das suas políticas, bem como para os decisores políticos de nível superior que tentam adaptar melhor os seus quadros jurídicos às vagas atuais e futuras de inovadores, Objetivo del estudio: El objeto del estudio son los presupuestos participativos, innovaciones sociales utilizadas por los municipios para involucrar a los ciudadanos en las decisiones presupuestarias locales con raíces en Brasil. El objetivo principal era determinar cómo afecta el hecho de formar parte de una red social a la decisión de introducir los presupuestos participativos tomada por los municipios de Polonia, donde se ha observado una notable difusión de la innovación desde principios de la década de 2010. Metodología: Se utilizaron pruebas de autocorrelación espacial y visualizaciones para descubrir grupos de municipios con características más similares o disímiles. Originalidad/Relevancia: La novedad del enfoque del estudio radica en la utilización de una base de datos propia – con la intención de superar el problema de insuficiencia de datos, típico de las investigaciones relacionadas. Principales resultados: En el estudio se confirma la presencia de efectos de proximidad espacial entre pares. La concentración de innovadores ha seguido siendo espacialmente desigual, lo que debe relacionarse, por ejemplo, con las diversas formas de capital social entre regiones. El diseño del estudio, basado en datos, permite explorar los presupuestos participativos como productos de las redes sociales y no solo de las estrategias individuales, como demuestran numerosos estudios de casos en este campo. Aportaciones metodológicas: El estudio demuestra la relevancia de recoger datos longitudinales para el desarrollo de la investigación sobre los presupuestos participativos. Contribuciones sociales/de gestión: Las conclusiones del estudio son de valor práctico para los adoptantes recientes y futuros, que desean comprender la relevancia más amplia de sus políticas, así como para los responsables políticos de alto nivel que intentan adaptar mejor sus marcos legales a las olas actuales y futuras de innovadores

This dissertation focuses on the economics of education in developing countries with a particular focus on parental educational investment decisions in China. In Chapter 1, I explore how parents' belief affect their investments in children's education using a randomized field experiment with parents of high school students in China. I document two types of information frictions that result in systematic biases in parents' beliefs about children's ability: overconfidence in future performance and underestimating college admission requirements. I then introduce two interventions to correct parents' belief biases. In the first intervention, I use machine-learning techniques to generate predictions on children's future academic performance and distribute them to randomly selected parents. In the second intervention, I give randomly selected parents a report that lists the feasible colleges corresponding to their children's current academic performance. I find that both interventions lead to dramatic reductions in belief biases. In addition, parents report higher levels of monetary investments in children's education, which significantly improved children's academic performance. I also find significant non-linearity in the impacts of ability belief on parental educational investments around their aspirations. In Chapter 2, I investigate the impacts of peer effects on parental educational investment decisions. Using a randomized experiment with 3379 parents of high-school students in China, I identify two channels of social influence in parents' decisions on children's educational investments: parents adjust their decisions based on other parents' behaviors because they learn from other parents' decisions ("social learning") or because their children are facing competition from peers ("competition externality"). I find that both channels have statistically significant effects on parents' investment decisions and increase their willingness to buy an educational service by

Vocational education and training (VET) is theorized to play a dual role for inequality of labor market outcomes: the role of a safety net and the role of socioeconomic diversion. In this paper, we test these hypotheses by examining the long-term labor market returns to track choice in upper secondary education in Denmark using an instrumental variable approach that relies on random variation in school peers’ educational decisions. We report two main findings. First, VET diverts students on the margin to the academic track away from higher-status but not higher-paying occupations. Second, VET protects students on the margin to leaving school from risks of non-employment and unskilled work, also leading to higher earnings. These results suggest that in countries with a highly compressed wage structure, a strong VET system benefits students unlikely to continue to college, while causing few adverse consequences for students on the margin to choosing academic education., Vocational education and training (VET) is theorized to play a dual role for inequality of labor market outcomes: the role of a safety net and the role of socioeconomic diversion. In this paper, we test these hypotheses by examining the long-term labor market returns to track choice in upper secondary education in Denmark using an instrumental variable approach that relies on random variation in school peers’ educational decisions. We report two main findings. First, VET diverts students on the margin to the academic track away from higher-status but not higher-paying occupations. Second, VET protects students on the margin to leaving school from risks of non-employment and unskilled work, also leading to higher earnings. These results suggest that in countries with a highly compressed wage structure, a strong VET system benefits students unlikely to continue to college, while causing few adverse consequences for students on the margin to choosing academic education.

Little is known about the role of active peer effects (interpersonal contact) compared to passive peer effects (noticing or seeing) regarding residential photovoltaic (PV) diffusion. Recent literature suggests that peer effects are determined by the perceived credibility of one's active peer connections regarding PV and passive peer effects. Utilising data from a survey of German house owners who either own a PV or indicate purchase intention (N = 1,165), this paper explores the underlying mechanisms of active peer effects during different stages of PV adoption decision-making. Our findings suggest that the perceived credibility of peers on PV related issues is positively associated with the reported number of adopters in the decision-maker's peer group (passive peer effect) and also with the progress in the PV adoption decision process. Furthermore, we find a relationship between the perceived credibility of peers regarding PV and the reported influence strength of peer interactions throughout the decision-making processes of German householders, suggesting that subjective evaluations of peers play a role in active peer effects. Finally, we observe an association between the rate of self-initiated peer interactions about PV for respondents with a higher reported number of peers that have adopted PV, suggesting that passive effects (knowing peer PV adopters) play a role in initiating active peer interactions. These results are significant for all sub-groups, regardless of the decision progress. From a policy-making perspective, “bottom-up” efforts such as peer consultation and community-led outreach should be promoted in Germany to empower potential adopters.

Continuing education beyond the compulsory years of schooling is one of the most important choices an adolescent has to make; higher education is associated with a host of social and economic benefits both for the person and its community. Today, there is ample evidence that educational aspirations are an important determinant of said choice. We implement a multilevel, networked experiment in 45 Mexican high schools, and provide evidence of the malleability of educational aspirations, and the interdependence of students' choices and the effect of our intervention with peer networks. Moreover, we find that a video- intervention, which combines role-models and information about returns to education, is successful in updating students' beliefs and consequently educational aspirations.

This paper investigates coworker peer effects in parental leave usage in Sweden. Weuse an instrumental variable approach labeled peers of peers in which parental leave usage byfamily peers (siblings and cousins) of coworkers is used as an instrument for coworkers’parental leave usage. For fathers, we find that a 10-day increase in average parental leave usageamong coworkers increases usage by approximately one and a half days, while for mothers,the increase is approximately one day. The results are robust to alternative model specifications.We explore possible mechanisms and discuss policy implications.

Sales of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs), which include battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), have grown substantially in recent years. To encourage PEV adoption, policymakers have offered monetary incentives for new PEV purchases, invested in charging infrastructure, and provided use-based incentives like High-Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lane access and parking benefits. But questions remain regarding where, for how long, and how much promotion and government support might be necessary to achieve the state’s targets. Existing research on technology diffusion indicates that exposure through neighbors, workplace peers, and other acquaintances can legitimize new technology for the mass market and accelerate its market penetration. Researchers from the University of California, Davis and Irvine examined the adoption of PEVs in California between 2014 and 2016, both spatially and temporally, to gain a better understanding of the technology diffusion process and the effect of technology exposure, while controlling for sociodemographic factors and the effect of PEV incentive programs on PEV adoption in the state. This policy brief summarizes the findings from that research and provides policy implications.View the NCST Project Webpage

The market for plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) that primarily include battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEVs) has been rapidly growing in California for the past few years. Given the targets for PEV penetration in the state, it is important to have a better understanding of the pattern of technology diffusion and the factors that are driving the process. Using spatial analysis and Poisson count models, the researchers identify the importance of a neighborhood effect (at home locations) and workplace effect (at commute destinations) in supporting the diffusion of PEV technology in California. In the case of new BEV sales, they found that exposure to one additional BEV or PHEV within a 1-mile radius of a block group centroid is associated with a 0.2% increase in BEV sales in the block group. Interestingly, for new PHEV sales, the neighborhood effect of BEV sales is negative, suggesting that enhanced exposure to this type of technology (which is differentiated in distinctive ways from PHEVs) may impact new PHEV sales through a substitution effect. Specifically, higher BEV concentration in an area can have an overall negative effect on new PHEV sales. While the neighborhood effect at residential locations is important, the workplace effect also has a notably important effect on new PEV sales. Both effects work in combination with socioeconomic, demographic, policy, and built environment factors in encouraging PEV adoption. These results suggest that policymakers should consider targeted programs and investments that can boost the impact of neighborhood and peer effects on PEV salesView the NCST Project Webpage

This dissertation contributes to literatures on the design and effects of two important public policies: Unemployment insurance and the minimum legal drinking age. I provide two unique perspectives on the design of unemployment insurance programs. First, by studying an oft-ignored policy parameter which influences benefit generosity, and second by analyzing an understudied margin along which these programs affect work incentives. I extend the literature on the minimum legal drinking age by empirically testing the hypothesis that increases in alcohol consumption at the drinking age have causal spillover effects on the alcohol consumption of younger peers.In chapter 1, I analyze a previously unexamined policy parameter used in unemployment insurance (and other social insurance) programs. Since unemployment insurance replaces a percentage of prior earnings while a claimant is out of work, policymakers must define a base period from which prior earnings are measured. A base period structure common in the Unemployment Insurance (UI) program in the United States has two important implications. First, for claimants with volatile enough earnings, this base period structure creates ``benefit risk''---a job loss at the wrong time implies lower benefit amounts. Second, since base periods are determined by the claim filing date, claimants can partially avoid the negative effects of this risk by strategically timing their claims. Using several new sources of administrative data from California’s UI program, I provide four key results on this topic. First, I demonstrate that exposure to benefit risk is widespread. Of roughly 22 million claimants in my sample, over 8 million are exposed to some level of benefit risk. Second, using a bunching approach I demonstrate that roughly 3% of affected claimants strategically delay their claims after a job loss in order to receive higher benefits. Third, I provide evidence that information frictions are a key barrier preventing more widespre

We fielded an online survey in the Netherlands and Australia to explore the influence of an implied endorsement nudge, conveyed by a government regulated drawdown from pension wealth, on spending patterns in retirement. The implied endorsement nudge was effective. It ininfluenced the preferred retirement spending patterns of around 30% of survey participants, particularly those with fewer fi nancial resources and low pension capability. Australian participants were more likely to follow the nudge where it was framed as implicit government advice while the Dutch were more likely to respond to a suggestion that the nudge was a recommendation from peers. Our results provide support for a regulated drawdown rule as part of a strategy to guide spending patterns in retirement.

This dissertation examines how the use of relative performance evaluation in compensation contracts of managers of large firms affects decisions of those managers. For an increasing number of managers, their compensation contract is defined relative to performance of other firms: in 2006, only 20 percent of firms provide managers with an explicit incentive to outperform peer firms, whereas nowadays, this statistic exceeds 50 percent. With regard to managerial decision-making, three broad categories of decisions in three distinct studies are considered: (1) risk-taking; (2) competitive aggressiveness; and (3) information disclosure. Each study outlines and tests economic forces that affect these decisions. Collectively, the three studies conclude that relative performance evaluation has crucial implications for managerial decisions, but also conclude that there is no “one effect” on managerial decision making. The dissertation therefore contributes to and has implications for policy, practice and research.

This thesis seeks to understand and find solutions to some of the vexing issues relating to financial literacy, financial decisions and behaviour. A major part of the thesis explores how a short, focused, just-in-time financial literacy intervention can improve immediate financial decisions, and how decisions of our peers impact our own choices under various circumstances. These issues were investigated using laboratory experiments under varying socio-economic and cultural backgrounds of Australia and Sri Lanka. Finally, the thesis addresses a well-known 'wicked problem' relating to inadequate retirement saving and offers a novel behavioural insight into improving long-term saving behaviour.

This dissertation investigates the role of aspirations and beliefs in explaining children’s educational outcomes, and explores how they can exacerbate socioeconomic disadvantage in education. Chapter 1 proposes an easily-implementable methodology to estimate the size of aspirational poverty traps in a given population—an important quantity which indicates the scope for reducing achievement gaps by lifting aspirations. - Chapter 2 shows that policy uncertainty about student finance can alone deepen achievement gaps as early as upon entering middle school. This finding demonstrates that reducing uncertainty in student finance could improve access to higher education. - Chapter 3 indicates that higher-achieving peers improve test scores and trigger a host of behavioural changes in children and parents, yet these behavioural changes do not explain peer effects in test scores. - Chapter 4 shows that teachers rely on imperfect signals about children’s ability, and form systematically biased expectations about their potential, intensifying disadvantage in the short and long run. This study, however, also suggests that the consequences of teacher bias can be limited by admissions policies in which teacher assessments have little weight. This dissertation, overall, demonstrates that aspirations and beliefs of students, parents and teachers matter for children’s educational success. It concludes that educational policies may reduce socioeconomic disadvantage through their impact on aspirations and beliefs.

This study analyses whether disruptive classroom behaviour affects students’ results in Swedish lower secondary schools (N = 1704), measured by the schools’ grade point averages (GPA). The data, collected from the Swedish school authorities, comprises variables on schools’ pupil composition, classroom environment and student mean grades. Previous research has shown that disruptive classroom behaviour has a negative impact on students’ results. This study finds such effects. The effect size reported is equal to the reported GPA differences between boys and girls. Results show that some of the original effects of school compositional variables are mediated through disruptive behaviour.

In my dissertation, I study competition between firms and between individuals. I combine a study of how telecommunication firms compete in auctions of electromagnetic frequencies (Chapter 1), with two studies of how individuals compete in contests, focusing on marathon runners (Chapters 2 and 3). Below is a separate overview of each study. The role of bidding agreements in the US radio frequency auctions In this project, I study competition in an auction setting where firms are permitted to communicate. In spectrum auctions conducted by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) which allocate the rights to electromagnetic frequencies in the United States, firms have the option to form multilateral bidding agreements. Bidders which choose to enter such agreements, are explicitly allowed to discuss their strategies and bids with each other. Using auction- and firm-level data from the FCC Auction 66, I empirically examine whether bidding agreements lead to differential auction outcomes for firms that are members of such agreements, versus other firms. I find that firms which are member of a bidding agreement, bid more aggressively and pay up to 43% higher prices than firms who have no such agreements. Next, I investigate what motive for bidding agreements can be best explained by the data. Results of empirical tests do not support the hypothesis that bidding agreements lead to anti-competitive behavior. In contrast, resource pooling is found to be the most likely agreement motive. Based on this preliminary conclusion, the FCC's rule of permitting bidding agreements appears to be justified on economic grounds. However, more auctions will have to be analyzed in order to reach a fully informed verdict about the justifiability of joint bidding. The Road Not Taken: Contest Selection and the Effect of Expected Competition In the second chapter of my dissertation I study how, given a certain set of contests, players decide which contests to enter. I do so by using data from

Many children in low- and middle-income countries are growing up during a rapid nutrition transition. Experimental evidence on food choice in developing countries is scarce, while it is unclear to what extent evidence from high-income countries can be generalized. Children participated in a snack choice experiment. We expose some children to emoji labels encouraging healthy snacks, while others observe healthy or unhealthy snacking by peers. While emoji labels moderately promote healthy snacking, the adverse effect of observing a peer eating the unhealthy snack is very large. The effect associated with observing a healthy peer is insignificant. Additionally, cross-randomized blocks of children watched a nutrition video to study the interaction of information provision and nudging. The video independently improves healthy choices but does not aid the emoji nudge and cannot counter the strong negative peer effect. We compare our findings to studies conducted in developed countries and discuss policy implications.

This article aims to investigate how students in receiving schools are affected by school closures. The effects are analyzed in a quasi-experimental study of all Swedish middle schools that received displaced students from 2000 to 2016, utilizing family fixed effects. The results show that the inflow of displaced students had a negative effect on student outcomes in the receiving schools in terms of average grades and test scores and that this effect increased over time. However, student achievement among nondisplaced students in the receiving schools was not affected by the inflow of displaced students, even when the displaced students came from relatively low-performing schools.

This article investigates the effects of school closures on student achievement. In contrast to previous studies that have primarily analyzed displaced students, this study also takes into account subsequent cohorts who would have attended the closed schools had they remained open. Furthermore, the study is one of the first of its kind outside the US and utilizes more detailed registry data on school quality than previous studies. The effects are investigated through a quasiexperimental study of all public middle school closures in Sweden from 2000 to 2012 utilizing family fixed effects. The results suggest that overall, the closures had no effects on student achievement. Contrary to theoretical expectations, the effects on subsequent cohorts were similar to the effects on displaced students, and the extensive Swedish school voucher system did not seem to direct displaced students to higher-quality schools.

In the educational literature on peer effects, attention has been brought to the fact that the mechanisms creating peer effects are still to a large extent hidden in obscurity. The hypothesis in this study is that the Frame Factor Theory can be used to explain these mechanisms. At heart of the theory is the concept of “time needed” for students to learn a certain curricula unit. The relations between class-aggregated time needed and the actual time available, steers and hinders the actions possible for the teacher. Further, the theory predicts that the timing and pacing of the teachers’ instruction is governed by a “steering criterion group” (SCG), namely the pupils in the 10th-25th percentile of the aptitude distribution in class. The class composition hereby set the possibilities and limitations for instruction, creating peer effects on individual outcomes. To test if the theory can be applied to the issue of peer effects, the study employs multilevel structural equation modelling (M-SEM) on Swedish TIMSS 2015-data (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study; students N=3761, teachers N=179). Using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) in the SEM-framework, latent variables are specified according to the theory, such as “limitations of instruction” from TIMSS survey items. The results indicate a good model fit to data of the measurement model. The SEM-model verify a strong relation between the mean level of the SCG and the latent variable of limitations on instruction, a variable which in turn has a great impact on individual students’ test results. Thus, the analysis indicates a confirmation of the predictions derived from the frame factor theory and reveals that one of the important mechanisms creating peer effects in student outcomes is the effect the class composition has upon the teachers’ instruction in class.

The present study addresses the question to what extent language skills among students are influenced by the composition of the overall classroom context and the composition of friendship networks within school classes. Furthermore, we ask whether the effects differ between stratified school systems, with a more homogenous student body in school classes, and comprehensive school systems, with a more heterogeneous student body. Focusing only on classroom characteristics, we find positive effects of the socioeconomic and cognitive overall composition of the school class in Germany’s selective school system, but not in Sweden’s comprehensive system. In contrast, the ethnic composition does not matter significantly in any of the systems, while direct peer interactions, captured with social networks measures targeting friends in a school class, matter slightly more in Sweden’s comprehensive school system.

While smoking is widely acknowledged to be a social activity, limited evidence exists on the extent to which friends influence each other during worksite-based tobacco cessation interventions. Drawing on data from adult smokers (N = 1823) in a large, cluster randomized controlled trial in worksites in Thailand, this study examines the presence of social spillovers in the decision to abstain from smoking. We leverage a unique aspect of social network structure in these data-the existence of non-overlapping friendship networks-to address the challenge of isolating the effects of peers on smoking behavior from the confounding effects of endogenous friend selection and bidirectional peer influence. We find that individuals with workplace friends who have abstained from smoking during the trial are significantly more likely to abstain themselves. Instrumental variables estimates suggest that abstinence after 3 and 12 months increases 26 and 32 percentage points, respectively, for each additional workplace friend who abstains. These findings highlight the potential for workplace interventions to use existing social networks to magnify the effect of individual-level behavior change, particularly in low- and middle-income countries where tobacco cessation support tends to be limited.

Climate change is a reality. Despite increasing materialization of this phenomenon and calls for immediate action to limit its underlying causes, only a limited uptake of pro-environmental behavior has been registered so far. One of its main reasons has been concluded to be the faulty pro-environmental communication, that is in most cases built ineffectively on erroneous assumptions about the nature of human behavior. The goal of the here presented research was thus to find out, what aspects communication strategy should be built on to motivate pro-environmental behavior, individual as well as collective. Considering the need to specialize communication strategies for higher impact and their potential swing voter role in Switzerland, a female target group was selected. To answer the research question, an experiment was conducted, exposing the participants to three variations of a communication strategy, preceded and followed by an online questionnaire. The results showed that shorter and, namely, peer effects-based strategies are the most effective to motivate pro-environmental action in general and among women in particular. The conclusions of this experiment thus importantly contribute to the on-going discussion on how to effectively communicate to motivate pro-environmental action, with insightful findings for both practice and further research.

This paper investigates the impacts of tasting experience and observing peers’ taste preferences on consumers' willingness to pay (WTP) for novel insect-based food products. In an empirical incentivized discrete choice experiment (DCE) developed to estimate Kenyan consumers' WTP for buns made with cricket flour, we test two treatments against a control treatment using a between-subject design. The control treatment is a typical DCE questionnaire survey. Treatment 1 is identical to the control except that respondents are asked to taste the buns before answering the questionnaire. In Treatment 2, respondents are also given the tasting experience but they additionally observe their peers' taste preferences for the buns. The results suggest that tasting experience is important since Treatment 1 obtains significantly higher WTP estimates than the control. However, allowing additionally for peer effects in Treatment 2 significantly reduces the WTP estimates again countering the effect of tasting in Treatment 1. According to the results, this is partly related to the observation of peers reacting negatively in terms of disliking the bun products. [EconLit Citations: D12, D90, Q13].

We use data from three waves of Add Health to study the short- and long-run effects of high school peers’ genetic predisposition to high BMI—measured by grade-mates’ average BMI polygenic scores—on adolescent and adult obesity in the U.S. We find that, in the short-run, a one standard deviation increase in peers’ average BMI polygenic scores raises the probability of obesity for females by 2.8% points, about half the size of the effect induced by a one standard deviation increase in one's own polygenic score. No significant effect is found for males. In the long-run, however, the social-genetic effect fades away, while the effect of one's own genetic risk for BMI increases substantially. We suggest that mechanisms explaining the short-run effect for females include changes in nutrition habits and a distorted perception of body size.

The Swedish school system has gone from one of the least segregated and equal in outcomes in the 90's to being an average OECD country in both categories. To try and understand the relations between the two variables I study the case of Linnéskolan and Kroksbäcksskolan between 2007 and 2013. Linnéskolan is in an affluent area of Malmö where most parents have tertiary education and have a mostly Swedish background. In comparison Kroksbäcksskolan is in a poor area where parents often lack secondary and tertiary education and a majority of the students have a foreign background. During three years between 2007 and 2009 the students from Kroksbäck who were about to start the sixth grade started at Linnéskolan instead. This paper studies the grades of the students at Linnéskolan during the years these students graduate and whether changing school made these students perform better than expected from a student body of their composition. Using a difference-in-difference approach with controls for parents' education and background, no significant result on grades is found.

Improving diversity and inclusion is a priority for the U.S. Navy. We examine whether having more leaders and peers from minority groups has any impact on minority and non-minority enlisted and officer retention on different U.S. Navy platforms. We use longitudinal data on first-term enlisted sailors and naval officers from the Defense Manpower Data Center to estimate role model and peer causal effects on first-term reenlistment and retention on different size naval platforms. The results suggest that an increase in same-minority peers, immediate supervisors, and senior leadership on-board medium ships and submarines has statistically significant positive effects mainly on black first-term sailors. Moreover, our analysis suggests that an increase in same-minority peers has a statistically significant effect on first-term Hispanic officers and an increase in same-minority officer senior leadership has a statistically significant effect on first-term non-Hispanic and black officers, respectively. Our findings provide insights to support the U.S. Navy’s efforts to improve inclusion and diversity while maximizing talent within the Navy., http://archive.org/details/theeffectsofdive1094564941, Lieutenant, United States Navy, Lieutenant, United States Navy, Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.

In this thesis, we use surveys and interviews with first-term Sailors on board U.S. naval ships to identify the factors most influential in their stay/leave decisions and how these factors vary across gender and race/ethnicity groups. Our framework of analysis is built on Frederick Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory and Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory to highlight relationships between factors of diversity of leadership and peers, mentoring, and first-term retention. Our analysis finds that most underrepresented groups and females have very different experiences than non-Hispanic whites in relation to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs factors of safety and security, social needs, esteem needs and self-actualization. Of these factors, negative experiences in social needs, which encompasses mentorship, the sense of belonging, and peer support, was found to have the largest impact on retention decisions of underrepresented groups and females. Based on these findings, our recommendation is the implementation of measures and strategic directives that address and resolve the gap felt in the lack of social needs fulfillment. We believe these findings can assist Navy leadership in their continuing efforts to improve strategies and initiatives to recruit, develop, and retain a high-quality military workforce. Improved racial and gender minority retention is a vital element in cultivating workforce talent and unlocking our Navy’s full potential in better support of national defense., OPNAV N17, Lieutenant, United States Navy Reserve, Lieutenant Commander, United States Navy, Approved for public release. distribution is unlimited

It is well-known that relative concern influences many economic choices, including consumption decisions. Recently, several studies have linked the gradually falling savings rate in the United States since the 1980s with both relative concern and increased inequality. In this paper, we test for the presence of relative concern (i.e., peer effects) in consumption decisions for Turkey. In particular, we test whether households are affected by the purchases of other households who constitute their reference group. This is one of the few studies that investigate relative concern in a developing-country setting. Drawing on nationally representative data from the Turkish Household Budget Survey for the years 2003-2012, we examine different reference groups comprised of members having the same education level, urban-rural residence status, or age range. We find that the hypothesis is validated and that non-rich households are affected by perceiving the consumption of more prosperous individuals of the same educational background. However, we do not observe any group effects for upper-income households.

It has been shown that both perseverance as well as peer effects affect performance. In our experiment, we investigate the interplay between these two factors. Participants work on a wordplay task where we quantify perseverance as the decision to continue working hard in the face of challenges. We find that persevering on the task is significantly correlated with the psychological questionnaire measure of grit (Duckworth et al., 2007). In an additional treatment, we provide participants with information about a peer's contemporaneous perseverance on the task. This significantly increases participants’ perseverance on the task independently of their perseverance as measured in the questionnaire, suggesting that it does not only depend on individuals’ inherent traits, but can also be increased by peers.

This paper uses lab-in-the-field experiments and theory to explore why people give money to governments. We assume that giving is motivated by outcome–oriented or consequentialist norms, and conditional on (a) others’ behavior and (b) beliefs about how competent the government is. The evidence from a lab experiment in Peru is in line with this. On the other hand, we analyze the potential effects of two policies to increase giving, observing that less people give zero if they are informed about (i) two specific government projects (a subway line and a children’s hospital) or (ii) that some well-known Olympic medalist pays punctually her taxes, according to public information released by the Peruvian tax Agency. Our findings contribute to a burgeoning literature on tax morale and are arguably relevant to understand taxpayers’ non-selfish reasons to pay (or evade) their taxes.

Peer effects have been shown to be important for educational development during adolescence. Peer effect from classmates and friends, nevertheless, could be the target of interventions only to a limited extent. We hypothesize that deskmates may affect educational achievement. In contrast to friendship, deskmate relations could realistically be a target of policy intervention by teachers, who can decide on the seating arrangements in class. This study examines whether deskmates have a positive impact on individual test scores that goes beyond the general influence of classmates and friends. The deskmate effect is investigated in ethnically mixed classrooms. Information on friendship and deskmates from a social network panel was merged with test score register data from secondary schools in Northern and Eastern Hungary. The study finds that, after controlling for students’ own baseline eighth-grade reading test scores and classroom-fixed effects, deskmates’ eighth-grade reading test score influences positively students’ tenth-grade reading test scores. No similar effect was found for mathematics test scores. We found no evidence that deskmates’ test scores mediate or moderate the ethnic test-score gap between Hungarian and Roma students.

The first chapter of my dissertation explores the roles “quants” or technically trained workers play at hedge funds. I quantify the impact of hiring “quants” on hedge fund strategy and risk taking by exploiting H-1B lottery results and a policy shock that significantly reduced the future supply of foreign high-skilled labor in the U.S. I find that the H-1B visa program allows hedge funds to pursue strategies that are more quantitative (e.g., hedging, systematic trading, etc.) as opposed to fundamentals-based (e.g., event driven). Although there is evidence of substitution between fund strategies, I also find that hedge funds overall become more diversified, both in terms of regional focus and fund investment style.Traditional theories on corporate financial policy mostly focus on firm-specific determinants and assume that capital structure choices are made independently of the actions of peer firms. The second chapter of my dissertation introduces a theoretical model that embodies the dynamic of how peer behavior affects a firm’s optimal choice of debt level. Specifically, peer effect is captured by a measure of how much the liquidation value of assets are adversely impacted if peer firms choose to liquidate simultaneously, the effect of which is more prominent for industries with highly specialized assets – hence low asset redeployability. The theoretical model predicts that a firm’s optional debt level is lower when the liquidation prices of its assets are expected to be more severely impacted by the concurrent liquidation of peer firms. Moreover, in those situations where peer firms’ cash flows are more closely correlated, the optional debt level will be higher. Individual firms’ attempts to maximize their own utility lead to an industry-wide over leverage, further exacerbating the risk of general crises in an already highly correlated industry.The third chapter of my dissertation explores the potential of using deep learning models to enhance equity trading strategies such as momen

We examine the impact of ethnic school composition on students' educational outcomes using Swedish population register data. We add to the literature on the consequences of ethnic school segregation for native and immigrant students by distinguishing social interaction effects from selection and environmental effects through one- and two-way fixed effects models. Our findings demonstrate that native and immigrant students' grades are relatively unaffected by social interaction effects stemming from the proportion of immigrant schoolmates. However, we find nontrivial effects on their eligibility for upper secondary school. Immigrants' educational outcomes are weakly positively affected by the proportion of co-ethnics in school.

This article illustrates how tools from social network analysis can be used to provide practical guidance for the design of crime prevention policies.

Social network analysis can help us understand the root causes of delinquent behaviour and crime and provide practical guidance for the design of crime prevention policies. To illustrate these points, we first present a selective review of several key network studies and findings from the criminology and police studies literature. We then turn to a presentation of recent contributions made by network economists. We highlight ten policy lessons and provide a discussion of recent developments in the use of big data and computer technology.