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Information Exchange and Multiple Peer Groups: A Natural Experiment in an Online Community

Jiang, Lingqing, Zhu, Z. (2022) Information Exchange and Multiple Peer Groups: A Natural Experiment in an Online Community. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 203 . pp. 543-562. ISSN 0167-2681. E-ISSN 2328-7616. (doi:10.1016/j.jebo.2022.09.019) (KAR id:97162)

Abstract

We utilise a quasi-experimental setup to identify causal effects of having additional peer groups on information exchange in a large online maternity community. The information exchange is a key performance indicator for the community as well as a public good among users. Pregnant users join default peer groups based on estimated due date (EDD). Natural uncertainties of EDD can lead to multiple peer groups. Using EDD as an instrumental variable, we find that additional peer group(s) reduces information exchange in both default peer group and total peer groups. Having more advanced groups mitigates the reduction, likely due to information spillovers.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1016/j.jebo.2022.09.019
Uncontrolled keywords: peer groups, information exchange, natural experiment, instrumental variables, online communities
Subjects: H Social Sciences
Divisions: Divisions > Kent Business School - Division > Department of Analytics, Operations and Systems
Funders: University of Kent (https://ror.org/00xkeyj56)
Depositing User: Zhen Zhu
Date Deposited: 28 Sep 2022 13:34 UTC
Last Modified: 04 Jul 2023 13:04 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/97162 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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