Is Poor Fitness Contagious?  Evidence from Randomly Assigned Friends

Carrell, Scott E.; Hoekstra, Mark; West, James E.

doi:10.3386/w16518

Cited by 75 publications

(84 citation statements)

References 28 publications

(28 reference statements)

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“…Similarly, we do not report outcomes, such as the choice of major at business school or career choice afterwards, which might be influenced by a student's peers. We also do not examine whether social behavior such as academic cheating (Carrell, Malmstrom, and West 2008), smoking (Nakajima 2007) or fitness (Carrell, Hoekstra, and West 2011) is differentially affected by study group or residential peers.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Impact of Study Groups and Roommates on Academic Performance

Jain¹,

Kapoor²

2015

Review of Economics and Statistics

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This paper uses random assignment of students to investigate the impact of study groups and roommates on academic achievement. We find that informal social interaction with roommates has a significant positive impact on academic achievement while study group peers have no discernible impact, a result driven by group heterogeneity in ability. We also find that lower ability students benefit from high ability students but not vice versa.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Impact of Study Groups and Roommates on Academic Performance

Jain¹,

Kapoor²

2015

Review of Economics and Statistics

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“…1 For examples, see: Bandiera and Rasul (2006) ;Bayer, Ross, and Topa (2008) ;Bertrand, Luttmer, and Mullainathan (2000) ;Carrell, Malmstrom, and West (2008); Case and Katz (1991) ;Evans, Oates, and Schwab (1992); Gaviria and Raphael (2001) ;Glaeser, Sacerdote, and Scheinkman (1996); Hensvik and Nilsson (2010); Markussen and Røed (2012); Maurin and Moschion (2009) ;Monstad, Propper, and Salvanes (2011);Munshi (2003); and Rege, Telle, and Votruba (2012). 2 See, for example: Babcock et al (2011);Rasul (2009, 2010); Carrell, Fullerton, and West (2009) ;Carrell and Hoekstra (2010) ;Carrell, Hoekstra, and West (2011) ;Carrell, Sacerdote, and West (2011);Cullen, Jacob, and Levitt (2006); Duncan et al (2005); Hanushek et al (2003); Hoxby (2000); Imberman, Kugler, In contrast, we focus on peer influence in naturally occurring groups and exploit variation in the "price" of a social program for a random s...…”

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confidence: 99%

Peer Effects in Program Participation

Dahl

Løken

Mogstad

2014

American Economic Review

348

232

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We estimate peer effects in paid paternity leave in Norway using a regression discontinuity design. Coworkers Economists and policymakers are keenly interested in understanding the effects of social interactions on individual behavior. One question of particular interest is how peer groups influence the take-up of government social programs. Peer groups could serve as important information transmission networks or be influential in changing social norms, particularly in settings where information is scarce and perceptions are in their formative stage. Social interactions could reinforce or offset the direct effects on take-up due to a program's parameters, leading to a long-run equilibrium take-up rate which is substantially lower or higher than otherwise expected.Estimating the causal effect of social interactions has proven difficult given the well-known problems of reflection, correlated unobservables, and endogenous group membership (Manski 1993). On top of these identification issues, it is often challenging to define the appropriate peer group and access data which links members of a peer group together. Early and ongoing research attempts to control for as many group characteristics as possible or use instrumental variables.1 Recognizing that estimates could still be biased, another set of papers attempts to measure peer effects by exploiting exogenous assignment to peer groups.

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“…(Lyons, 2011, Cohen-Cole and Fletcher, 2008a, Cohen-Cole and Fletcher, 2008b, Noel and Nyhan, 2011, Sainsbury, 2008, Shalizi and Thomas, 2011). Nevertheless, other recent studies, using random assignment of peers, have identified a direct causal link between individual and peer physical activity (Carrell et al, 2011). …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neighborhood effects in a behavioral randomized controlled trial

et al. 2014

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Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of interventions intended to modify health behaviors may be influenced by neighborhood effects which can impede unbiased estimation of intervention effects. Examining a RCT designed to increase colorectal cancer (CRC) screening (N=5,628), we found statistically significant neighborhood effects: average CRC test use among neighboring study participants was significantly and positively associated with individual patient’s CRC test use. This potentially important spatially-varying covariate has not previously been considered in a RCT. Our results suggest that future RCTs of health behavior interventions should assess potential social interactions between participants, which may cause intervention arm contamination and may bias effect size estimation.

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Is Poor Fitness Contagious? Evidence from Randomly Assigned Friends

Cited by 75 publications

References 28 publications

The Impact of Study Groups and Roommates on Academic Performance

The Impact of Study Groups and Roommates on Academic Performance

Peer Effects in Program Participation

Neighborhood effects in a behavioral randomized controlled trial

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