An Examination of Peer Effects Using High School Competition Realignments

The enrollment criterion adopted by high school athletic associations in the United States for the designation of competitive classifications provides a plausibly exogenous setting for estimating peer effects. The juxtaposition of swimmers participating for schools reassigned to different classifications with those participating for schools remaining in the same classification yields evidence of relative improvements for those promoted to higher classifications. Further analysis identifies changes in peer quality and relative ranking as the mechanisms. Evidence of variation in the responses by stroke complexity may have significant implications if generalizable to academic and employment settings characterized by similar levels of task heterogeneity. (Keywords: Peer Effects, Competition, Tournaments; JEL Codes: D91, J24, Z13, Z22)