In recent years, increasing social sentiment towards environmental concerns has given firms that are lagging behind their peers on CSR initiatives strong incentives to catch up. Focusing on environmentally-sensitive industries in the U.S., we show that these lagging firms invest more...

In this paper, we investigate peer effects in corporate risk management by studying reinsurance utilization in the U.S. property-casualty insurance industry due to the unique risk management feature of this industry and the statutory disclosure requirement of detailed reinsurance transactions....

This paper examines inference on social interactions models in the presence of missing data on outcomes. In these models, missing data on outcomes imply an incomplete data problem on both the endogenous variable and the regressors. However, getting a sharp estimate of the partially identified...

We study the long-run effects of income inequality within adolescent peer compositions in schools. We propose a theoretical framework based on reference dependence where inequality in peer groups can generate aspiration gaps. Guided by predictions from this framework we find that an increase in...

Social networks are a key factor of success in life, but they are also strongly segmented on gender, ethnicity, and other demographic characteristics (Jackson, 2010). We present novel evidence on an understudied source of homophily, namely behavioral traits. Behavioral traits are important...

We use a lab-in-the-field experiment to explore the influence of parents and peers in shaping adolescents’ beliefs on whether they are better in male-typed fields (math) versus female-typed fields (literature). We find that thinking about parental recommendation affects students’ beliefs on...