IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jeborg/v195y2022icp288-302.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The influence of peer institutions on colleges’ decisions: Evidence from fall 2020 reopening plans

Author

Listed:
  • Acton, Riley K.
  • Cook, Emily E.
  • Luedtke, Allison

Abstract

We study how colleges and universities influence each other’s behavior in the context of fall reopening plans during the COVID-19 pandemic. By leveraging high-frequency data on colleges’ reopening announcements and using a fixed-effects model to control for unobserved factors at the college and state-day levels, we provide evidence that colleges respond strongly to prior decisions made by their peer institutions. A 10 percentage point (pp) increase in the share of one’s peers who have announced an in-person plan —roughly equivalent to 2 additional peers announcing in-person plans —increases the probability of doing so by 2.5pp. An equivalent increase in the share of one’s peers who have announced an online decision increases the probability of doing so by 4.0pp. These effects are robust to a variety of specifications and definitions of peer institutions.

Suggested Citation

  • Acton, Riley K. & Cook, Emily E. & Luedtke, Allison, 2022. "The influence of peer institutions on colleges’ decisions: Evidence from fall 2020 reopening plans," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 195(C), pages 288-302.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:195:y:2022:i:c:p:288-302
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2022.01.016
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167268122000221
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jebo.2022.01.016?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sacerdote, Bruce, 2011. "Peer Effects in Education: How Might They Work, How Big Are They and How Much Do We Know Thus Far?," Handbook of the Economics of Education, in: Erik Hanushek & Stephen Machin & Ludger Woessmann (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Education, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 4, pages 249-277, Elsevier.
    2. Alexandre Mas & Enrico Moretti, 2009. "Peers at Work," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 99(1), pages 112-145, March.
    3. Gordon B. Dahl & Katrine V. L?ken & Magne Mogstad, 2014. "Peer Effects in Program Participation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(7), pages 2049-2074, July.
    4. Grennan, Jillian, 2019. "Dividend payments as a response to peer influence," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(3), pages 549-570.
    5. Jie Cao & Hao Liang & Xintong Zhan, 2019. "Peer Effects of Corporate Social Responsibility," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 65(12), pages 5487-5503, December.
    6. Leonardo Bursztyn & Florian Ederer & Bruno Ferman & Noam Yuchtman, 2014. "Understanding Mechanisms Underlying Peer Effects: Evidence From a Field Experiment on Financial Decisions," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 82(4), pages 1273-1301, July.
    7. Dennis Epple & Richard Romano & Sinan Sarpça & Holger Sieg & Melanie Zaber, 2019. "Market power and price discrimination in the US market for higher education," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 50(1), pages 201-225, March.
    8. Dennis Epple & Richard Romano & Holger Sieg, 2006. "Admission, Tuition, and Financial Aid Policies in the Market for Higher Education," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 74(4), pages 885-928, July.
    9. Chao Fu, 2014. "Equilibrium Tuition, Applications, Admissions, and Enrollment in the College Market," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 122(2), pages 225-281.
    10. Luedtke, Allison Oldham & Urban, Carly, 2021. "Do High Schools Choose Financial Education Policies Based on Their Neighbors?," IZA Discussion Papers 14288, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. Aucejo, Esteban M. & French, Jacob & Zafar, Basit, 2023. "Estimating students’ valuation for college experiences," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 224(C).
    12. Kaustia, Markku & Rantala, Ville, 2015. "Social learning and corporate peer effects," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(3), pages 653-669.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Alvin Christian & Brian Jacob & John D. Singleton, 2022. "Assessing School District Decision-Making: Evidence from the COVID-19 Pandemic," NBER Working Papers 30520, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Riley K. Acton & Wenjia Cao & Emily E. Cook & Scott A. Imberman & Michael F. Lovenheim, 2022. "The Effect of Vaccine Mandates on Disease Spread: Evidence from College COVID-19 Mandates," NBER Working Papers 30303, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. M. Cecilia Bustamante & Laurent Frésard, 2021. "Does Firm Investment Respond to Peers’ Investment?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(8), pages 4703-4724, August.
    2. Hsu, Yuan-Teng & Huang, Chia-Wei & Koedijk, Kees G., 2023. "Unintended consequences of compensation peer groups on corporate innovation," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    3. Yuan, Hang & Guan, Zhihua & Jiang, Changmin & Yang, Hangjun, 2023. "Peer effect in the construction of China’s high-speed rail stations: Empirical evidence from spatial econometric analysis," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    4. Zhang, Tianyu, 2023. "Peer effects in R&D investment based on interlock network: Evidence from China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    5. Amrei Lahno & Marta Serra-Garcia, 2015. "Peer effects in risk taking: Envy or conformity?," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 50(1), pages 73-95, February.
    6. Beugnot, Julie & Fortin, Bernard & Lacroix, Guy & Villeval, Marie Claire, 2019. "Gender and peer effects on performance in social networks," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 207-224.
    7. Berlinski, Samuel & Ramos, Alejandra, 2020. "Peer effects in the decision to apply for a professional excellence award," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    8. Budsaratragoon, Pornanong & Lhaopadchan, Suntharee & Thomsen, Steen, 2020. "Community and compensation: Director remuneration in Thailand," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    9. Dennis Epple & Richard Romano & Sinan Sarpça & Holger Sieg & Melanie Zaber, 2019. "Market power and price discrimination in the US market for higher education," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 50(1), pages 201-225, March.
    10. Shen, Xieyang & Yang, Sijie & Chen, Yulin & Zeng, Jianyu, 2022. "How does economic policy uncertainty influence managers' learning from peers' stock prices? Evidence from China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    11. Dimant, Eugen, 2015. "On Peer Effects: Behavioral Contagion of (Un)Ethical Behavior and the Role of Social Identity," MPRA Paper 68732, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Ni, Juan & Jin, Shuchang & Hu, Yi & Zhang, Lei, 2023. "Informative or distracting: CSR disclosure of peer firms and analyst forecast accuracy," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    13. Gershenson, Seth & Lindsay, Constance A. & Papageorge, Nicholas W. & Campbell, Romaine A. & Rendon, Jessica H., 2023. "Spillover Effects of Black Teachers on White Teachers' Racial Competency: Mixed Methods Evidence from North Carolina," IZA Discussion Papers 16258, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    14. Einar C. Kjenstad & Anil Kumar, 2022. "The effect of real estate prices on peer firms," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 50(4), pages 1022-1053, December.
    15. Leonardo Bursztyn & Robert Jensen, 2017. "Social Image and Economic Behavior in the Field: Identifying, Understanding, and Shaping Social Pressure," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 9(1), pages 131-153, September.
    16. Chien Chi Chu & Xiu‐Fen Su & Yu‐En Lin & Akihiro Omura & Bin Li & Adrian Wai‐Kong Cheung, 2023. "Love thy neighbour: Evidence from capital structure decisions," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 63(3), pages 2907-2933, September.
    17. Bhuller, Manudeep & Dahl, Gordon B & Løken, Katrine V. & Mogstad, Magne, 2018. "Incarceration Spillovers in Criminal and Family Networks," Discussion Paper Series in Economics 15/2018, Norwegian School of Economics, Department of Economics.
    18. Ajirloo, Bahman Fathi & Switzer, Lorne N., 2022. "Self-disclosed peer effects on corporate capital structure," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    19. Zhuang, Yuan & Nie, Jing & Wu, Weixing, 2022. "Peer influence and the value of cash holdings," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 265-284.
    20. Zhen Peng & Yujun Lian & Joseph A. Forson, 2021. "Peer effects in R&D investment policy: Evidence from China," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(3), pages 4516-4533, July.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Higher education; Peer institutions; COVID-19;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I2 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education
    • H4 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods
    • L3 - Industrial Organization - - Nonprofit Organizations and Public Enterprise

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:195:y:2022:i:c:p:288-302. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jebo .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.