PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Smith, Jonathan
TI  - Peers, Pressure, and Performance at the National Spelling Bee
AID  - 10.3368/jhr.48.2.265
DP  - 2013 Mar 31
TA  - Journal of Human Resources
PG  - 265--285
VI  - 48
IP  - 2
4099  - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/48/2/265.short
4100  - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/48/2/265.full
SO  - J Hum Resour2013 Mar 31; 48
AB  - This paper investigates how individuals’ performances of a cognitive task in a high-pressure competition are affected by their peers’ performances. To do so, I use novel data from the National Spelling Bee, in which students attempt to spell words correctly in a tournament setting. Across OLS and instrumental variables approaches, I find that when the immediate predecessor is correct, a speller has a 13 to 64 percent greater probability of making a mistake, relative to the predecessor being incorrect. There is no evidence that the effect differs by gender and marginal evidence that it differs by experience.