IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/sad/wpaper/125.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Peer Pressure and Externalities: Evidence from a field experiment

Author

Listed:
  • Bruno Cardinale Lagomarsino

    (Department of Economics, Universidad de San Andres)

  • Matías Gutman

    (Department of Economics, Universidad de San Andres)

  • Lucía Freira

    (Department of Economics, Universidad de San Andres & UTDT)

  • María Laura Lanzalot

    (Department of Economics, Universidad de San Andres)

  • Maximiliano Lauletta

    (Department of Economics, Universidad de San Andres)

  • Leandro Malchik

    (Department of Economics, Universidad de San Andres)

  • Felipe Montaño Campos

    (Department of Economics, Universidad de San Andres)

  • Bianca Pacini

    (Department of Economics, Universidad de San Andres)

  • Martín Rossi

    (Department of Economics, Universidad de San Andres)

  • Christian Valencia

    (Department of Economics, Universidad de San Andres)

Abstract

We provide experimental evidence on the effect of peer pressure on activities with externalities. Specifically, we study the effect of being exposed to an observer in a public restroom on hand-washing behavior. Our estimates show that being exposed to an observer increases the probability of hand-washing in 13 percentage points. We also observe urinal flushing behavior, with similar results. We find empirical support that peer pressure may provide an additional way of solving the social suboptimality arising from externalities.

Suggested Citation

  • Bruno Cardinale Lagomarsino & Matías Gutman & Lucía Freira & María Laura Lanzalot & Maximiliano Lauletta & Leandro Malchik & Felipe Montaño Campos & Bianca Pacini & Martín Rossi & Christian Valencia, 2015. "Peer Pressure and Externalities: Evidence from a field experiment," Working Papers 125, Universidad de San Andres, Departamento de Economia, revised Dec 2015.
    • Handle: RePEc:sad:wpaper:125
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://webacademicos.udesa.edu.ar/pub/econ/doc125.pdf
    File Function: First version, 2015
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Judah, G. & Aunger, R. & Schmidt, W.-P. & Michie, S. & Granger, S. & Curtis, V., 2009. "Experimental pretesting of hand-washing interventions in a natural setting," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 99(S2), pages 405-411.
    2. Andrew F. Daughety & Jennifer F. Reinganum, 2010. "Public Goods, Social Pressure, and the Choice between Privacy and Publicity," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 2(2), pages 191-221, May.
    3. R. H. Coase, 2013. "The Problem of Social Cost," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 56(4), pages 837-877.
    4. DeanS. Karlan, 2007. "Social connections and group banking," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 117(517), pages 52-84, February.
    5. Kandel, Eugene & Lazear, Edward P, 1992. "Peer Pressure and Partnerships," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 100(4), pages 801-817, August.
    6. Baumol, William J, 1972. "On Taxation and the Control of Externalities," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 62(3), pages 307-322, June.
    7. Mas-Colell, Andreu & Whinston, Michael D. & Green, Jerry R., 1995. "Microeconomic Theory," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195102680.
    8. Antoni Calvó-Armengol & Matthew O. Jackson, 2010. "Peer Pressure," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 8(1), pages 62-89, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Bruno Cardinale Lagomarsino & Matías Gutman & Lucía Freira & María Laura Lanzalot & Maximiliano Lauletta & Leandro E. Malchik & Felipe Montaño Campos & Bianca Pacini & Martín A. Rossi & Christian Vale, 2017. "Peer Pressure: Experimental Evidence From Restroom Behavior," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 55(3), pages 1579-1584, July.
    2. Chechelski, Piotr & Grochowska, Renata & Łopaciuk, Wiesław & Ślązak, Emil & Wasilewski, Adam & Wigier, Marek, 2012. "Development est public policy support in the food economy – the example of Poland," Multiannual Program Reports 164845, Institute of Agricultural and Food Economics - National Research Institute (IAFE-NRI).
    3. Steven G. Medema, 2020. "The Coase Theorem at Sixty," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 58(4), pages 1045-1128, December.
    4. Frans P. Vries & Nick Hanley, 2016. "Incentive-Based Policy Design for Pollution Control and Biodiversity Conservation: A Review," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 63(4), pages 687-702, April.
    5. Dieter Schmidtchen & Jenny Helstroffer & Christian Koboldt, 2021. "Regulatory failure and the polluter pays principle: why regulatory impact assessment dominates the polluter pays principle," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 23(1), pages 109-144, January.
    6. Peifang Yang & Daniel T. Kaffine, 2016. "Community-Based Tradable Permits for Localized Pollution," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 65(4), pages 773-788, December.
    7. Bård Harstad, 2012. "Buy Coal! A Case for Supply-Side Environmental Policy," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 120(1), pages 77-115.
    8. Olsson, Ola, 2000. "A Microeconomic Analysis of Institutions," Working Papers in Economics 25, University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics.
    9. Edward P. Lazear, 2000. "Economic Imperialism," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 115(1), pages 99-146.
    10. Dijkstra, Bouwe R. & de Vries, Frans P., 2006. "Location choice by households and polluting firms: An evolutionary approach," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 425-446, February.
    11. Taylor, Josh A. & Dhople, Sairaj V. & Callaway, Duncan S., 2016. "Power systems without fuel," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 1322-1336.
    12. Schons, Stella Zucchetti & Amacher, Gregory & Cobourn, Kelly & Arantes, Caroline, 2020. "Benefits of community fisheries management to individual households in the floodplains of the Amazon River in Brazil," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    13. Murty, Sushama, 2010. "Externalities and fundamental nonconvexities: A reconciliation of approaches to general equilibrium externality modeling and implications for decentralization," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 145(1), pages 331-353, January.
    14. Strokov, A. & Ternovsky, D. & Potashnikov, V. & Potapova, A., 2020. "Economical evaluation of externalities using partial equilibrium model," Journal of the New Economic Association, New Economic Association, vol. 48(4), pages 113-136.
    15. Gaël Giraud & Cécile Renouard, 2011. "In search of an alternative to shareholder value maximization," Post-Print hal-00609153, HAL.
    16. Marek Hudik, 2024. "Externality as a coordination problem," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 201(3), pages 495-510, December.
    17. Christopher W. Young & Wayne Eastman, 2013. "The structural failures of the heavenly markets," Rationality and Society, , vol. 25(1), pages 41-89, February.
    18. Gérard Mondello, 2017. "Un modèle d'accident unilatéral: incertitude non-radicale et estimations différenciées," GREDEG Working Papers 2017-12, Groupe de REcherche en Droit, Economie, Gestion (GREDEG CNRS), Université Côte d'Azur, France.
    19. Marian W. Moszoro & Pablo T. Spiller, 2018. "Implications of Third Parties for Contract Design," Economia e Politica Industriale: Journal of Industrial and Business Economics, Springer;Associazione Amici di Economia e Politica Industriale, vol. 45(1), pages 5-16, March.
    20. Ko, Il-Dong, 1988. "Issues in the control of stock externality problems with inflexible policy measures," ISU General Staff Papers 198801010800009859, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    peer pressure; externalities;

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:sad:wpaper:125. 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: Maria Amelia Gibbons (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/desanar.html .

    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.