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This paper examines the spillover effects of maternal education in elementary classrooms in the context of Vietnam. Drawing from the sample of students who are randomly assigned to classrooms, we find that exposure to classmates whose mothers are well-educated positively influences student achievement. The heterogeneity analyses reveal that the magnitude of the effects tends to be larger for students from advantaged backgrounds. Exploring the mechanisms, we find that higher academic aspiration and motivation as well as an improved learning environment are potential pathways to the favorable impacts of peers' maternal education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental (E), social (S), and governance (G) concepts have become a global consensus. Therefore, exploring the motivation mechanism adopted by companies to carry out ESG practices to promote sustainable social and economic development is of far-reaching significance. This study investigated whether there was a peer effect in the ESG practices of A-share listed companies and explored its mechanism of action and economic consequences using the data of Chinese A-share listed companies from 2010 to 2021. The empirical results show that there is a significant regional and industry peer effect on the ESG practices of A-share listed companies, which still holds when the average stock trait return is used as the instrumental variable. Furthermore, the mechanism test indicates that the information learning motive and agency cost are potential reasons for the peer effect of ESG practices. On the one hand, followers with information disadvantages tend to imitate the ESG practices of leaders with information advantages, but the converse is invalid. On the other hand, a worse external information environment leads to a higher degree of uncertainty, while a higher agency cost leads to a stronger peer effect of ESG practices. Lastly, the peer effect of corporate ESG practices helps create corporate value and increases corporate risk-taking to some extent. This paper provides a new micro perspective for understanding the occurrence mechanism and economic consequences of ESG practices, as well as crucial empirical evidence for firms to make sustainable development investment decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the global prevalence of Omicron diseases, health prevention behaviors have gained paramount importance. This paper focuses on a relatively closed environment, such as schools or communities, and develops a theoretical model grounded in social learning theory and social influence theory. The study categorizes preventive health behavior into active preventive health behavior (APHB) and passive preventive health behavior (PPHB). Employing structural equation modeling, we conducted a survey with 632 respondents to scrutinize the influential mechanisms of preventive health behavior in relatively closed environments. Our findings indicate that peer effect influence significantly impacts both types of preventive health behavior. Notably, risk perception distinctly influences PPHB but lacks significant influence on APHB. Moreover, the geographical distance's effect on risk perception is found to be insignificant. These results carry substantial implications for enhancing the adoption of preventive health behavior in relatively closed environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The commitment of soldiers to the military is essential because it could lead to increased morale, motivation and retention. Despite the accumulation of knowledge about predictors of organizational commitment (OC), efforts to investigate environmental factors influencing OC are in their infancy. We note that individuals shape their attitudes toward the environment based on information obtained from their surroundings, and we investigate peer effects on OC using data from a natural experiment of randomly-assigned military academy roommates. A total of 400 cadets (Sex ratio: 93.5% male, Age: 21.13 $ \pm $ ± 1.43 years) from 136 living quarters participated in this quantitative study. In both self- and roommate-reports, we found that the average affective commitment (AC), continuance commitment (CC), and normative commitment (NC) of roommates in a living quarter can still predict AC, CC, and NC of the remaining individual in that same living quarter, respectively, even after controlling for the personal predictors of that remaining individual. Additionally, in self-report, we discovered that when there is a high heterogeneity in AC among roommates within a living quarter, the AC of the remaining individual in that living quarter tends to be higher, even after controlling for the personal predictors of that remaining individual. These findings provide initial evidence that attempting to assign soldiers with low OC to the same living quarters as those with high OC may be worthwhile. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the effects of peers' civic‐mindedness on elementary school students' civic‐mindedness. Raising civic‐minded and socially responsible adolescents has become a focus of attention in many countries in recent years. This study used fourth‐grade elementary school panel data from the Seoul Education Longitudinal Survey 2010, identifying causality based on fixed effects and instrumental variable estimation from students' random classroom assignment. Results showed that the high civic‐mindedness among classmates increased students' own civic‐mindedness. Based on these findings, implications for adolescent education are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the role of peer effects in shaping the adoption of sustainable heating systems in two highly polluted communes in Southern Chile. Despite policies promoting cleaner alternatives, wood-burning stoves, a major source of particulate matter emissions, remain widespread. This research work addresses a critical gap in the literature by examining how peer influence—typically studied in relation to visible technologies like solar panels or electric vehicles—affects the adoption of less visible but essential sustainable heating technologies. The main objective of this study is to understand how peer networks can influence the attitudes of residents towards sustainable heating technologies in highly polluted urban environments. Employing a non-experimental, cross-sectional design with a sample of 244 participants, this study reveals that peer effects and health risk perception are significant predictors of positive attitudes towards sustainable heating systems. These findings contribute valuable insights for policymakers seeking to accelerate energy transitions in polluted regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enhancing farmers' adoption of clean energy is crucial for promoting sustainable rural development and ecological environmental protection. It not only reduces the consumption of traditional fossil fuels, greenhouse gas emissions, and environmental pollution but also optimizes the structure of rural energy consumption, improves farmers' quality of life, and supports the goal of building a green countryside. This paper investigates the impact of internet use on farmers' adoption of clean energy and the associated peer effects, further exploring how internet use influences these peer effects. The analysis is based on data from the 2018 and 2020 waves of the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS). The study's findings reveal that (1) farmers' adoption of clean energy exhibits a significant peer effect, and internet use also has a significant positive impact on this adoption. Both the peer effect and internet use effectively enhance farmers' clean energy utilization, a conclusion that holds even after robustness checks. (2) Internet use significantly strengthens the peer effect, particularly when it is used for social and entertainment purposes, where this reinforcing effect is most pronounced. (3) The peer effect, the impact of internet use on clean energy adoption, and the strengthening of the peer effect by internet use vary according to farmers' geographical location and household income. These findings provide valuable insights and recommendations for improving policies aimed at promoting clean energy adoption among farmers, ultimately fostering its broader diffusion and application in rural areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Contemporary Accounting Research is the property of Canadian Academic Accounting Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In recent years, scholars have incorporated peer effects into the research framework of consumption, providing a new perspective for studying residents' consumer behavior. However, the common themes of thethese two terms are relatively under-researched, and a more detailed synthesis is needed. This study presents a visual bibliometric analysis of the knowledge structure and evolution of the peer effect in the field of consumption using CiteSpace (v.6.3. R1). The results show that the peer effect in the consumer domain has received increasing attention from the academic community and has broad research prospects. This study also provides a theoretical summary based on analysis of the literature. The mechanism of generating consumer behavioral peer effects, identification methods, and reference group categories are comprehensively discussed. Finally, this study proposes future research priorities based on the shortcomings of current research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technology advances have enhanced competition in insurance industry. This paper investigates a class of dynamic asset and liability management(ALM) games among insurers with mean-variance of relative log return performance. We obtain the unique time-consistent equilibrium ALM strategies explicitly. The results show that competition leads to the increases of insurers risky asset investment and the insurance liability. The equilibrium solution implies that social utility(relative concerns) leads to social learning(herd effect) in the complete information market. In particular, the peer relative concern can induce preference interaction. We find the Granger causal relationship between industry competition and herd behavior in the empirical data. Finally, we conduct sensitivity analysis of the competition outcome with respect to risk parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amidst pressing global needs for environmental protection and sustainable development, the international community expects corporations to play a vital role, balancing profit pursuits with environmental responsibility. As the world's second-largest economy and a manufacturing giant, China's environmental governance and corporate models become a research centerpiece. Using the panel data of Chinese A-share heavy polluting industry listed companies from 2013 to 2020, and adopting the Linear-In-Means Model, this paper proposes for the first time that the corporate environmental financial integration is significantly influenced by the peer enterprises. Further research finds that: 1) Peer effect is more significant in private enterprises than state-owned enterprises. 2)The peer effect of environmental pollution integration of heavily polluting enterprises is sticky, mainly reflected in the effect of focus enterprises following peer enterprises to reduce their own environmental financial integration is stronger than the effect of following peer enterprises to upgrade synchronously. And this kind of stickiness is more significant in private enterprises. 3) The institutional pressure has a role in promoting the peer effect of enterprise environmental financial integration, and more significant in state-owned enterprises. Delving into the dynamics of Chinese enterprises in environmental management and financial strategies serves not only to excavate lessons from China's experience but also contributes to the global reservoir of wisdom on environmental protection and green development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the impacts of political competition on eco-efficiency. We first develop a theoretical model in which local government officials compete against each other to maximise their own political score. We find that after an initial stage of decline, eco-efficiency eventually turns upwards, once environmental performance becomes a meaningful component of local government officials' annual assessment. Eco-efficiency also exhibits a pattern of convergence. Lastly, the level of political competition is found to be negatively correlated with eco-efficiency. For the empirical analysis, we use a data envelopment analysis (DEA) model to compute the eco-efficiency level for 191 Chinese cities from 2003 to 2015. Our empirical evidence presents a 'U'-shape pattern in the trend of eco-efficiency and identifies two peer effects that work in opposite directions: the incentivising effect arising from higher performing neighbours, and the disincentivising effect when a city outperforms its competitors. Both peer effects lead to convergence in eco-efficiency, and our spatial econometric modeling analysis suggests that the net peer effect is significantly positive. We also find evidence of political competition reducing eco-efficiency, as predicted in the theoretical model. Our findings are robust to alternative measures of eco-efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the internet business model has become a popular concept, and has been adopted by an increasing number of traditional enterprises. However, the question remains whether this adoption is a strategy-driven decision or a blind follow of trends. Therefore, this study is conducted on Chinese listed companies from 2007 to 2020 to examine the existence, underlying motives, and economic consequences of peer effects in traditional enterprises adopting internet business models. The results show significant peer effects among traditional enterprises adopting internet business models. The examination of driving mechanisms reveals that peer effects of internet business models are more significant in enterprises with asset-light structures, higher degrees of virtualization, lower market valuations, and greater financing pressure, supporting the conceptual catering hypothesis rather than the strategic drive hypothesis. Further tests reveal that while adopting internet business models enables enterprises to receive some government subsidy and market reaction in the short term, it only promotes tactical innovation rather than real innovation and does not improve the financial performance of these enterprises. This further indicates that peer effects of internet business models are not a strategic drive but rather a matter of conceptual catering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Capital Institute of Physical Education is the property of Shoudu Tiyu Xueyuan and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

• We identify the causal effect of peers' prosocial behaviors on one's donations. • Use roommates' random assignment and peers' volunteering history for identification. • Exposure to peers with pre-college prosocial behaviors boosts one's donations. • Peer effects vary by donation levels, interaction preferences, and self-confidence. • Results suggest social pressure as a potential mechanism of peer influence. Understanding the determinants of philanthropic behaviors, which bring benefits to society but come with private costs, is crucial. In this study, we investigate the causal impact of exposure to peers with prosocial behaviors on an individual's donations. In contrast to previous research, we address the issue of self-selection by exploiting the random assignment of college roommates and tackle the challenges of reflection bias by examining peers' volunteering history in high school in relation to an individual's donations in college. Our results indicate a statistically significant and positive impact of peers' prosocial behaviors on an individual's own donations. Moreover, we find that the magnitude of peer effects varies based on individuals' donation levels, interaction preferences, and self-confidence levels, suggesting social pressure as a potential mechanism of peer influence. This study contributes to the existing literature by shedding light on the role of social influence in shaping philanthropic behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considering the peer relationship between subjects, a probabilistic linguistic term sets (PLTSs) two-sided matching decision-making (TSMDM) method based on peer effect is proposed. Firstly, the addition and scalar multiplication operation for PLTSs are improved and the probabilistic linguistic weighted averaging (PLWA) operator is further proposed to aggregate PLTSs. Secondly, two kinds of satisfaction functions are proposed to calculate satisfaction degrees of both sides. Furthermore, the multi-objective optimization model is established and transformed it into the single-objective model, and the satisfactory results are obtained by solving this model. Finally, an example and several comparison analysis and sensitivity analysis are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness and practicability of the proposed TSMDM method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identification and estimation of causal peer effects are challenging in observational studies for two reasons. The first is the identification challenge due to unmeasured network confounding, for example, homophily bias and contextual confounding. The second is network dependence of observations. We establish a framework that leverages a pair of negative control outcome and exposure variables (double negative controls) to non-parametrically identify causal peer effects in the presence of unmeasured network confounding. We then propose a generalised method of moments estimator and establish its consistency and asymptotic normality under an assumption about ψ -network dependence. Finally, we provide a consistent variance estimator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study theoretically evaluated and empirically tested the peer effect of residents' volunteering behaviour in a Chinese scenario using data from the 2019 China Comprehensive Social Situation Survey (CSS). The study found that residents' volunteering behaviour had significant peer effect, with every unit increase in volunteering activities of other residents in the community enhancing the probability of residents' participation in volunteering by 21.0% to 30.0%. The results were still valid even after using community location, province dummy variables, and instrumental variables to determine reflexivity and correlation. By contrast, urban community residents were more affected by peer effect. Internet access attenuated the peer influence. Interpersonal trust and trust in charitable organizations reinforced the peer effect, whereas trust in dysfunctional government inhibited the peer influence. The study findings provide a theoretical and empirical standard for improving volunteer incentives and mechanisms as well as enhancing policy effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we examine the peer effect on climate risk information disclosure by analyzing A-share listed companies in China. We find that industry peers influence target firms’ climate risk information disclosure through active (passive) imitation resulting from cost–benefit considerations (institutional pressures). Leader companies are more likely to be emulated by within-industry follower companies and target firms prefer to learn from similar within-industry firms. Executive overconfidence and performance pressure negatively affect target firms’ willingness to emulate their peers. Finally, the peer effect of climate risk information disclosure demonstrates a regional aspect. Our findings have implications for reasonable climate risk information disclosure at the micro level and effective regulation to move toward achieving carbon peak/neutrality at the macro level.

Digital transformation has become an inevitable choice for enterprises to survive and compete. This article aims to investigate mechanisms and impacts of peer effects in digital transformation within supply chain networks. Using a sample of listed companies in China from 2011 to 2020, the findings suggest the existence of peer effects in the digital transformation of enterprises within supply chain networks. These effects become more significant as the perception of uncertainty and environmental uncertainty increase. Further analysis reveals that the greater the disparity in discourse power and the degree of digital transformation among peer enterprises within the supply chain, the stronger the peer effects. The study also examines various scenarios in which enterprises operate, finding that greater supply chain stability significantly enhances the peer effects of digital transformation. Heterogeneity tests indicate that peer effects in digital transformation are more evident when peer enterprises within the supply chain are located in different regions, operate in different industries, are non-state-owned, have directorial connections and common institutional ownership, and possess fluctuating executive teams. Additionally, the study discusses the spillover effects of digitalization among peer enterprises on the focal company. This research provides a micro-level exploration of the peer effects of digital transformation from a supply chain perspective, offering theoretical references and practical insights for enterprises seeking to achieve digital transformation.

Copyright of Population & Economics / Renkou yu Jingji is the property of Capital University of Economics & Business and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Persistent green innovation helps enterprises save energy, reduce pollution, and continue to gain economic benefits. However, existing studies explored the economic and organizational factors influencing firms' persistent green innovation while neglecting peer influence in the digital economy. This study examines the impact of digital economy and peer influence on persistent green innovation using data of Chinese-listed companies from 2011 to 2019. The results show that digital economy and peer influence positively affect persistent green innovation. Moreover, digital economy plays a competitive mediating role between peer influence and persistent green innovation. The results of further research show that both the time lag term of peer influence and spatial lag term of digital economy affect persistent green innovation. This study incorporates the three-level elements of enterprise, peer, and city into a unified framework, providing theoretical reference and practical guidance for green innovation to enhance the competitive advantage of enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the era of a green economy, green innovation has become a way for enterprises to gain competitive advantage, and it is of great theoretical and practical significance to explore the driving force of enterprises' green innovation. This study explores the peer effect of an enterprise's green innovation and conducts an empirical test using data from 3338 Chinese listed companies in 2020. The results show a significant positive peer effect of enterprises' green innovation, and the green innovation of individual enterprises increases by 0.869 for each unit increase in industry‐average green innovation. Further research shows that market power is the channel by which peer influence affects an enterprise's green innovation. Moreover, regional heterogeneity exists in the strength of the peer effect, which varies according to firm maturity and board size. These findings provide a reference for enterprises and governments to promote green transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

IntroductionHow cognitive abilities affect financial and economic decision is an important issue that has attracted the attention of economics.MethodThis paper uses the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) 2010, 2014, and 2018 survey data to empirically test the impact of cognitive skills on the insurance participation decisions in rural China.Results and discussionThe results show that higher word ability is correlated to higher social health insurance participation and both word and math ability leads to higher social pension participation. Mechanism analysis reveals that individuals with higher cognitive skills are more likely to be affected by peers in insurance decision, and higher cognitive skills increase personal income that enables them to enroll in the social insurance. Further investigation of labor supply behavior suggests that while cognitive skills positively affect non-agricultural labor participation, cognitive skills amplify the negative effect of social security on labor supply.

[Objective] Under the background of comprehensive green transformation of economic and social development, encouraging and developing agricultural insurance plays an important role in promoting green agricultural production, realizing high-quality agricultural development, and promoting rural revitalization and construction in China. [Methods] Firstly, we try to construct a research framework of Cobb-Douglas production function including agricultural insurance, agricultural technology progress and green agricultural production, and theoretically analyze the channels of agricultural insurance on green agricultural production. Secondly, based on the panel data of 31 provinces in China from 2011 to 2021, the index of green agricultural production level is constructed by entropy weight method, and the mixed regression, fixed effect and random effect and two-stage least squares method are used to empirically investigate the effect of agricultural insurance on green agricultural production by promoting agricultural technology progress. [Results] The study found that: (1) Agricultural insurance to promote agricultural technological progress is an important mechanism to promote green agricultural production ; the security of agricultural insurance can disperse the risks faced by agriculture, optimize the input of technical elements, eliminate traditional technologies with high pollution and high emissions, and produce substitution effects; the policy of agricultural insurance encourages farmers to pay for insurance through financial subsidies, improves the enthusiasm of farmers to grow crops, promotes the scale and mechanization of agriculture, and produces peer effects; (2) The effect of agricultural insurance on green agricultural production by promoting agricultural technological progress will show significant differences due to the different degrees of technological development in various provinces. Compared with regions with low agricultural green total factor productivity, agricultural insurance has a better effect on green agricultural production by promoting agricultural technology progress in regions with high agricultural green total factor productivity. Compared with areas with higher total power of agricultural machinery, the effect of agricultural insurance on green agricultural production by promoting agricultural technological progress is better in areas with lower total power of agricultural machinery. [Conclusion] The substitution effect and peer effect of agricultural insurance encourage farmers to adopt green low-carbon production technologies and facilitate agricultural green production. This article also put forward some policy recommendations, including government agencies leading the development, broadening and optimizing the participation of various parties in the development of green agriculture, and strengthening the professional and science and technology training of farmers.

Recently, China's Ministry of Education has established a new department to regulate extracurricular tutoring for the purpose of reducing students' excessive academic burden. In this paper, we provide empirical evidence that academic competitiveness among students is a key driver of the extracurricular tutoring fever. Using the China Education Panel Survey (CEPS) data, we show that when their competitors attend extracurricular tutoring, students keep up with the actions of competitors, generating the peer effect of extracurricular tutoring. This effect is more pronounced for students with stronger competitive preferences. However, this irrational imitation behavior does not improve students' academic performance.

Abstract Background Optimizing prescribing practices is important due to the substantial clinical and financial costs of polypharmacy and an increasingly aging population. Prior research shows the importance of social relationships in driving prescribing behaviour. Using social network analysis, we examine the relationship between a physician practices’ connectedness to peers and their prescribing performance in two German regions. Methods We first mapped physician practice networks using links established between two practices that share 8 or more patients; we calculated network-level (density, average path length) and node-level measures (degree, betweenness, eigenvector). We defined prescribing performance as the total number of inappropriate medications prescribed or appropriate medications not prescribed (PIMs) to senior patients (over the age of 65) during the calendar year 2016. We used FORTA (Fit fOR The Aged) algorithm to classify medication appropriateness. Negative binomial regression models estimate the association between node-level measures and prescribing performance of physician practices controlling for patient comorbidity, provider specialization, percentage of seniors in practice, and region. We conducted two sensitivity analyses to test the robustness of our findings – i) limiting the network mapping to patients younger than 65; ii) limiting the network ties to practices that share more than 25 patients. Results We mapped two patient-sharing networks including 436 and 270 physician practices involving 28,508 and 20,935 patients and consisting of 217,126 and 154,274 claims in the two regions respectively. Regression analyses showed a practice’s network connectedness as represented by degree, betweenness, and eigenvector centrality, is significantly negatively associated with prescribing performance (degree—bottom vs. top quartile aRR = 0.04, 95%CI: 0.035,0.045; betweenness—bottom vs. top quartile aRR = 0.063 95%CI: 0.052,0.077; eigenvector—bottom vs. top quartile aRR = 0.039, 95%CI: 0.034,0.044). Conclusions Our study provides evidence that physician practice prescribing performance is associated with their peer connections and position within their network. We conclude that practices occupying strategic positions at the edge of networks with advantageous access to novel information are associated with better prescribing outcomes, whereas highly connected practices embedded in insulated information environments are associated with poor prescribing performance.

Purpose: Existing approaches to explaining the dynamics of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate financial performance (CFP) through peer effect are incomplete as they do not conceptualize the complexity of the phenomenon. Building on the extant literature the paper aims to critically document parameters to understand the connectivity between peer effect-CSR and CSR-CFP. Design/Methodology/Approach: The paper is based on a proposed conceptual framework identifying key parameters to understand the connectivity between peer effect-CSR and CSR-CFP. Relevant extant literature published during 1993-2017 in high-quality journals is synthesized. This review reveals different approaches and measurement techniques as the basis of inconclusive empirical evidence on the relationship between corporate social and financial performance. Findings: The paper implies that firms mimic their peers’ CSR strategies for different reasons such as reputation or learning in the hope of devising better strategies for growth and sustainable development. To state, there are different motives behind and channels through which peers influence CSR-CFP association. Implications/Originality/Value: The paper establishes a link between corporate social and financial performance through the lens of peer effect, especially in the context of developing economies. This paper has implications in enhancing overall understanding of social responsibility and financial performance connection by providing clarity on underlying themes, theoretical underpinnings and measurement approaches.

As a key determinant of employment behavior, employment intention is easily affected by the environment, others and their subconsciousness, thus deviating from the optimal decision predicted by the classical economic model. Peers are an important environmental factor that directly affects individual behavior, but their effect on employment intentions has not been fully verified. The paper analyzes the class peer effect on university students' employment intentions using random class assignment data from a central province in China. It is found that positive peer employment behavior has a significant positive effect on university students' employment intentions, and this result remains robust after replacing the proxy variables. Further analysis of the peer effect mechanism reveals that the provision and dissemination of school employment information enhances the peer effect in employment intentions, while the help given by parents and family background weakens the peer effect. The results of the dose effect of the peer effect show that the peer effect tends to increase over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The peer effect may amplify adverse selection in social networks, hampering the sustainable operation of microinsurance. This paper uses data from a micro health insurance program in Pakistan to test for the peer effect in renewal decisions and the role it plays in amplifying adverse selection within social networks. The paper finds evidence supporting that insurance renewal decisions are similar among peers in the same network, and the peer effect is stronger among households of the same risk type than households of different risk types, indicating that the heterogeneous peer effect acts as an amplifier for adverse selection. The paper provides policy implications for effective ways to mitigate the peer effect and adverse selection, based on the results of heterogeneity analyses. The policy recommendation is to enforce a minimum group enrollment rate requirement of at least 60% for large groups to mitigate the peer effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Optimizing prescribing practices is important due to the substantial clinical and financial costs of polypharmacy and an increasingly aging population. Prior research shows the importance of social relationships in driving prescribing behaviour. Using social network analysis, we examine the relationship between a physician practices' connectedness to peers and their prescribing performance in two German regions. Methods: We first mapped physician practice networks using links established between two practices that share 8 or more patients; we calculated network-level (density, average path length) and node-level measures (degree, betweenness, eigenvector). We defined prescribing performance as the total number of inappropriate medications prescribed or appropriate medications not prescribed (PIMs) to senior patients (over the age of 65) during the calendar year 2016. We used FORTA (Fit fOR The Aged) algorithm to classify medication appropriateness. Negative binomial regression models estimate the association between node-level measures and prescribing performance of physician practices controlling for patient comorbidity, provider specialization, percentage of seniors in practice, and region. We conducted two sensitivity analyses to test the robustness of our findings – i) limiting the network mapping to patients younger than 65; ii) limiting the network ties to practices that share more than 25 patients. Results: We mapped two patient-sharing networks including 436 and 270 physician practices involving 28,508 and 20,935 patients and consisting of 217,126 and 154,274 claims in the two regions respectively. Regression analyses showed a practice's network connectedness as represented by degree, betweenness, and eigenvector centrality, is significantly negatively associated with prescribing performance (degree—bottom vs. top quartile aRR = 0.04, 95%CI: 0.035,0.045; betweenness—bottom vs. top quartile aRR = 0.063 95%CI: 0.052,0.077; eigenvector—bottom vs. top quartile aRR = 0.039, 95%CI: 0.034,0.044). Conclusions: Our study provides evidence that physician practice prescribing performance is associated with their peer connections and position within their network. We conclude that practices occupying strategic positions at the edge of networks with advantageous access to novel information are associated with better prescribing outcomes, whereas highly connected practices embedded in insulated information environments are associated with poor prescribing performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the peer effects of accounting conservatism in a common dedicated institutional blockholder (CDIB) setting. We find a positive correlation in accounting conservatism between focal firms and their CDIB peers. To corroborate our main findings, we document that the peer effect is stronger for firms connected through CDIBs that are activists or that have more active shares, for firms with larger CDIB ownership and for firms with weaker corporate governance mechanisms and higher information asymmetry. The results suggest that managers view following peer firms' conservatism as a way of pleasing CDIBs. We also find that in proxy voting, firms receive less support from their investors when their conservatism deviates more from their CDIB peers. Finally, we find that the CDIB peer effect remains significant after controlling for the effect of industry and local peers. Overall, our paper presents evidence consistent with firms adapting their accounting conservatism in response to their incumbent dedicated institutional investors' preference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BackgroundGovernments around the world have taken measures to limit adolescent drinking, however, rates are still alarmingly high. However, most of these measures ignore the peer effect of drinking among adolescents. Previous studies have not sufficiently considered the reciprocal relationship between adolescent alcohol consumption and peer alcohol consumption, which may lead to an overestimation of the peer effect and mask underlying issues. Good instrumental variables are powerful but rare tools to address these issues.ObjectiveThis paper aims to correctly estimate the peer effect of drinking on adolescent drinking behavior in China.MethodsOwing to the detailed information of household background in the dataset of our survey, we were able to use the drinking behaviors of peers’ fathers and their beliefs about the health risks of alcohol as instrumental variables, which are more powerful than school-average instrumental variables. We collected data from the 2017 Health and Nutrition Panel survey, which surveyed 10,772 primary school students from 59 urban migrant and 60 rural public schools.ResultsThe instrumental variable method estimation revealed that peer drinking significantly influences adolescent drinking behavior, with adolescents who have peers who drink alcohol being 10.5% points (2 stage least square, i.e., 2SLS, full sample estimation) more likely to engage in drinking compared to those without such peers. Furthermore, the effect differs significantly between migrant and rural adolescents.ConclusionThe study found that parental care plays a significant role in the degree of peer effect, with the absence of parental care being a key factor in the presence of the peer effect.

Copyright of Nankai Business Review is the property of Nankai Business Review Editorial Office and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The conception of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance has been widely implemented and has become an important indicator of firms' eco-friendly transformation in heavy-pollution industries. The sectoral and regional peer influences of corporate ESG performance can effectively promote firms' green sustainable development within an entire industry, district, and market. In this study, our main hypothesis is that corporate ESG performance has a significantly positive peer effect among heavy-pollution industry firms within the same province, industry, and product market. Therefore, by employing novel spatial econometric techniques, we investigate the peer effect of corporate ESG performance among 681 of China's A-share listed firms within 20 heavy-pollution industries from 2012 to 2021 and explore the impacts from peer indirect effect views, such as public media attention, regulatory pressure, and green innovation. Further, we detect the sectoral and regional peer pulling and dragging effects under the two statuses of firms' ESG rating changes. The main findings are as follows. First, corporate ESG performance has a significantly positive peer effect, which is the highest among firms within the same industry. Second, the mechanism analysis presents that the increase in other firms' negative web news, environment-related penalties, and green patents has different peer indirect effects on corporate ESG performance within the same province, industry, and product market. Third, corporate ESG performance has a significantly positive peer-pulling effect among firms when other firms' ESG levels increase, yet a significantly positive peer-dragging effect only within the same region and industry when other firms' ESG levels decrease. This study gives empirical contributions that firms can take advantage of the positive peer effect of corporate ESG performance to improve their own ESG practice level and employ it as a competitive strategy for pursuing long-term value, and governments should maintain sustainable supervision measures and an orderly competitive market environment to cultivate a consensus on corporate ESG development in heavy-pollution industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides a new perspective of peer effects that coexist in different consumer activities and investigates how consumption of a household is affected by the level of incomes of its peers. Using unique panel data on Chinese households between 2011 and 2019, we explore the causal relationship between peers' income and household consumption and then analyze plausible mechanisms behind it. We find that the peer effect of income in consumption is significantly positive. Higher level of average income in a reference group is associated with the household's greater expenditure on consumption and the improvement of consumption structure. There is also evidence that peer household income helps to encourage the household consumption through its impact on household income and peer household consumption. By identifying peers' income as the average income of other households living in the same region, in the same age group and with the same level of education, our research contributes to the literature on peer effects in consumption, mapping relationships between intragroup income and individual consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction Adolescence is a stage of companionship during which young people choose to spend time with their peers rather than their families. It is a period of learning new ideas and the development of overall personality. Peer influence affects positively and negatively on everyone's life. The study examines the impact of peers on lifestyle behaviors such as nutrition, physical activity, fashion, and habit among undergraduate students from various professional colleges. Objectives of the Study To assess the peer influence on lifestyle behaviors among undergraduates and find its association with selected baseline variables. Materials and Methods The study design was descriptive survey design. The tool consisted of a baseline proforma and a structured rating scale to assess the peer influence on lifestyle behaviors among undergraduates. Using a proportionate stratified simple random sampling technique based on inclusion criteria, 325 undergraduate students were chosen. SPSS version 16 software was used for descriptive and inferential statistical analysis. Results Our study revealed that the majority 211 (65.3%) of undergraduates had a moderate influence on peer pressure, 95 (29.4%) had low influence, 16 (5.0%) had a strong influence, and 1 (0.3%) had no influence. The highest mean percentage of peer influence was in personality and communication (79.3%), and the least was in smoking and alcoholism (36.6%). The mean percentage of other areas was of healthy mind (74.8%), exercising (71.1%), food choices (68.2%), buying choices (64.9%), social media, and use of gadgets (45.7%). The mean percentage of the total score was 64.58. However, there was a significant association between the peer influence and baseline variables such as gender and approachable person in need, but no such relationship existed for other variables. Conclusion The study reveals remarkable evidence of peer influence among undergraduate students. However, the data reflect on positive peer influence rather than negative influence, which shows that the undergraduates rely on each other to improve their overall personality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When students are aware of the exam grades of their peers, does this information affect their subsequent exam performance? For example, knowing that my friend scored a higher grade on Exam 1 than myself might motivate me to improve my performance on Exam 2, or might frustrate me such that I stop trying to catch up. We analyze whether students' performance is shaped by the grades of their classmates. To answer this question, we use survey-based data on students' connections to other students with the grades that students obtained in a class. We find that a peer effect on grades does exist, where students who know that the grades of their friends were higher than their own on the first exam are motivated to improve their score on the following exam. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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