Peers and Motivation at Work: Evidence from a Firm Experiment in Malawi

We study workplace peer effects by randomly varying work assignments at a tea estate in Malawi. We find that increasing mean peer ability by 10 percent raises productivity by 0.3 percent. This effect is driven by the responses of women. Neither production nor compensation externalities cause the eff...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of human resources 2022-07, Vol.57 (4), p.1147-1177
Main Authors: Brune, Lasse, Chyn, Eric, Kerwin, Jason
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Compensation
Motivation
Peers
Productivity
Socialization
Tea
Teams
Teamwork
Wages & salaries
Women
Work environment
Workers
Workplaces
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Summary:We study workplace peer effects by randomly varying work assignments at a tea estate in Malawi. We find that increasing mean peer ability by 10 percent raises productivity by 0.3 percent. This effect is driven by the responses of women. Neither production nor compensation externalities cause the effect because workers receive piece rates and do not work in teams. Additional analyses provide no support for learning or socialization as mechanisms. Instead, peer effects appear to operate through "motivation"-given the choice to be reassigned, most workers prefer working near high-ability coworkers because these peers motivate them to work harder.
ISSN:0022-166X
1548-8004
DOI:10.3368/jhr.57.4.0919-10416R2