Peer Effects in Academic Research: Senders and Receivers

Abstract

Using an instrument based on a national contest in France determining researchers’ location, we find evidence of peer effects in academia, when focusing on precise groups of senders (producing the spillovers) and receivers (benefiting from the spillovers), defined based on field of specialisation, gender and age. These peer effects are present even outside formal co-authorship relationships. Furthermore, the match between the characteristics of senders and receivers plays a critical role. In particular, men benefit a lot from peer effects provided by other men, while all other types of gender combinations produce spillovers twice as small. Part of the peer effects results from researchers switching research fields.

Stimulating Peer Effects? Evidence from a Research Cluster Policy

“…Similarly, Borjas and Doran (2012) show a negative effect of the influx of Soviet Union mathematicians on the productivity of American mathematicians, due to competition for scarce resources, but no effect on overall productivity. Finally there is some evidence of peer effects in the ideas space (Iaria, Schwarz and Waldinger, 2018;Bosquet et al, 2020). Our paper shows that policies can affect these peer effects, in particular stimulate new collaborations, but that peer effects appear to be very asymmetric.…”