Remote Worker Productivity and Peer Effects from a Natural Experiment

Panel data from a company with a fully remote workforce, used to examine peer effects on employee productivity. The dataset, authored by Hideaki Ishikura and last updated on 2026-03-17, leverages as-if random assignment of new hires to teams as a quasi-natural experiment. It is a 9.5 KB XLS file shared under a CC-BY-4.0 license on figshare.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the effect of team average productivity on individual worker output based on the described quasi-natural experiment.
• Investigating how the presence of highly experienced teammates influences productivity, as indicated by a 12.2% increase.
• Studying the differential impact on employees with short tenure, who saw a 26.2% productivity increase.
• Exploring the relationship between team communication volume and peer effects, given the finding that positive influence occurs with minimal interaction.

Strengths

• Data originates from a company that has operated with an entirely remote workforce since its inception, providing a unique context.
• Leverages as-if random assignment of new hires to teams, strengthening causal inference for a quasi-natural experiment.
• Specific effect sizes are reported, such as a 12.2% productivity increase from experienced teammates and a 26.2% increase for short-tenure employees.

Limitations

• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• The dataset is very small at 9.5 KB, indicating limited scope.

Provenance

Source

figshare, authored by Hideaki Ishikura.

Collection Method

Panel data from a single company, with as-if random assignment of new hires to teams used as a quasi-natural experiment.

Time Range

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Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-17 17:25:27; freshness should be verified.

Geography

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