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Self-Selection of Peers and Performance

Author

Listed:
  • Lukas Kiessling

    (Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, 53113 Bonn, Germany)

  • Jonas Radbruch

    (Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), 53113 Bonn, Germany)

  • Sebastian Schaube

    (Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, 11019 Berlin, Germany)

Abstract

This paper studies how the presence of peers and different peer assignment rules—self-selection versus random assignment—affect individual performance. Using a framed field experiment, we find that the presence of a randomly assigned peer improves performance by 28% of a standard deviation (SD), whereas self-selecting peers induces an additional 15%–18% SD improvement in performance. Our results document peer effects in multiple characteristics and show that self-selection changes these characteristics. However, a decomposition reveals that variations in the peer composition contribute only little to the performance differences across peer assignment rules. Rather, we find that self-selection has a direct effect on performance.

Suggested Citation

  • Lukas Kiessling & Jonas Radbruch & Sebastian Schaube, 2022. "Self-Selection of Peers and Performance," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(11), pages 8184-8201, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:ormnsc:v:68:y:2022:i:11:p:8184-8201
    DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.2021.4267
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