Networks and workouts
Subtitle: treatment size and status specific peer effects in a randomized field experiment
By: Philip S. Babcock, John L. Hartman
Contributors: Hartman, John L.; National Bureau of Economic Research
Series: NBER working paper series -- working paper 16581; Working paper series (National Bureau of Economic Research : Online) -- working paper no. 16581.
Publisher: National Bureau of Economic Research
Published: 2010
Place of publication: Cambridge, MA
Language: eng
Format: Electronic resource
Description: "The NBER Bulletin on Aging and Health provides summaries of publications like this.  You can sign up to receive the NBER Bulletin on Aging and Health by email.  This paper estimates treatment size and status specific peer effects that are not detected by widely-used approaches to the estimation of spillovers.  In a field experiment using university students, we find that subjects who have been incentivized to exercise increase gym usage more if they have more treated friends.  However, control subjects are not influenced by their peers.  Findings demonstrate that fraction treated has a large influence on outcomes in this environment, and spillovers vary greatly by treatment status.  Results highlight subtle effects of randomization and document a low-cost method for improving the generalizability of controlled interventions in networked environments"--National Bureau of Economic Research web site.
Notes: Title from PDF file as viewed on 3/31/2011.

Includes bibliographical references.

Also available in print.

System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Mode of access: World Wide Web.