Peer Effects in the Workplace

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Cornelissen, Thomas; Dustmann, Christian; Schonberg, Uta
• 署名单位: University of York - UK; University of London; University College London
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0002-8282
• DOI: 10.1257/aer.20141300
• 发表日期: 2017
• 页码: 425-456
• 关键词: workers; PRODUCTIVITY; spillovers; pressure; outcomes

摘要

Existing evidence on peer effects in the productivity of coworkers stems from either laboratory experiments or real-world studies referring to a specific firm or occupation. In this paper, we aim at providing more generalizable results by investigating a large local labor market, with a focus on peer effects in wages rather than productivity. Our estimation strategy-which links the average permanent productivity of workers' peers to their wages-circumvents the reflection problem and accounts for endogenous sorting of workers into peer groups and firms. On average over all occupations, and in the type of high-skilled occupations investigated in studies on knowledge spillover, we find only small peer effects in wages. In the type of low-skilled occupations analyzed in extant studies on social pressure, in contrast, we find larger peer effects, about one-half the size of those identified in similar studies on productivity.