Gender and Peer Effects on Performance in Social Networks

Julie Beugnot (1) , Bernard Fortin (1, 2) , Guy Lacroix (1, 2) , Marie Claire Villeval (3)

1 CIRPEE - Centre interuniversitaire sur le risque, les politiques économiques et l'emploi
2 CIRANO - Centre interuniversitaire de recherche en analyse des organisations
3 GATE Lyon Saint-Étienne - Groupe d'Analyse et de Théorie Economique Lyon - Saint-Etienne

We investigate whether peer effects at work differ by gender and whether gender differences in peer effects -if any- depend on work organization. We develop a social network model with gender heterogeneity that we test in a real-effort laboratory experiment. We compare sequential networks in which information flows from peers to the worker and simultaneous networks where it disseminates bi-directionally. We identify strong gender differences as females disregard their peers’ performance in simultaneous networks, while males are influenced by peers in both networks. Females may perceive the environment in simultaneous networks as being more competitive than in sequential networks.

Mots clés: Peer effects; social networks; work effort; piece rate; experiment

Domaines: Economies et finances

Julie Beugnot, Bernard Fortin, Guy Lacroix, Marie Claire Villeval. Gender and Peer Effects on Performance in Social Networks. 2017. ⟨halshs-00855047v2⟩