Carrell, Scott E., Frederick V. Malmstrom, James E. West. 2008. “Peer Effects in Academic Cheating.” Journal of Human Resources 43(1): 173–207.
Using self-reported academic cheating from the classes of 1959 through 2002 at the three major United States military service academies (Air Force, Army, and Navy), we measure how peer cheating influences individual cheating behavior. We find higher levels of peer cheating result in a substantially increased probability that an individual will cheat. One additional college student who cheated in high school drives approximately 0.33 to 0.47 additional college students to cheat. One additional college cheater drives approximately 0.61 to 0.75 additional college students to cheat. These results imply, in equilibrium, the social multiplier for academic cheating is approximately three.
Scott E. Carrell is an assistant professor of economics at the University of California, Davis. Frederick V. Malmstrom is a visiting scholar in the Center for Character Development of the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. James E. West is a professor of economics at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. The authors would like to thank all participants at the NBER Higher Education meetings, the Dartmouth College seminar and the Western Economic Association annual meetings for their numerous helpful comments. They are also grateful to the College Board for allowing us access to their historical archive of college admissions data. The data used in this article can be obtained beginning August 2008 through July 2011 from the authors: Scott E. Carrell, SeCarrell@ucdavis.edu; Frederick V. Malmstrom, Fred.Malmstrom@usafa.edu; and James E. West, Jim.West@usafa.edu.