Special Issue Introduction: Social Networks and Economics
The aim of the special issue is to explore open problems at the frontier of the Economics of Social Networks. The papers in this special issue range across pure and applied theory and empirical...
View ArticleIt's all about Connections: Evidence on Network Formation
We present an economic experiment on network formation, in which subjects can decide to form links to one another. Direct links are costly but being connected is valuable. The game-theoretic basis for...
View ArticleEquilibrium Selection in Network Coordination Games: An Experimental Study
We experimentally study equilibrium selection in repeated coordination games played on networks. We test predictions from three competing theories. In line with payoff-dominance as a deductive...
View ArticleNetwork Multipliers: The Optimality of Targeting Neighbors
A firm wishes to inform a community of individuals about its product. Information travels within the community because of the social interactions between individuals. We establish that social...
View ArticleTargeting Informative Messages to a Network of Consumers
This paper considers duopolists targeting informative messages to consumers who share information locally with their network neighbors. A monopolist targets a parsimonious set of nodes that informs...
View ArticleFormation of Citation Networks by Rational Players and The Diffusion of Ideas
We study models of the formation of citation networks in a setting where authors/firms care about their citations and are rational. The effect of these two features on the diffusion of useful ideas in...
View ArticleSmall World Networks with Segregation Patterns and Brokers
Individuals' cognitive knowledge of their social networks is affected by systematic biases. This paper investigates the role of the mean degree bias, i.e. the tendency to underestimate the number of...
View ArticleMultilevel Mediation in Symmetric Trees
The flourishing internet-based trade motivates our model of two-sided markets with multilevel mediation, in which a seller, intermediaries at various levels and buyers are embedded in a symmetric...
View ArticleDoes Homophily Predict Consensus Times? Testing a Model of Network Structure...
We test theoretical results from Golub and Jackson (2012a), which are based on a random network model, regarding time to convergence of a learning/behavior-updating process. In particular, we see how...
View ArticleOrganized Crime Networks: an Application of Network Analysis Techniques to...
Using a unique data set on criminal profiles of 800 US Mafia members active in the 1950s and 1960s and on their connections within the Cosa Nostra network, we use simple network analysis techniques to...
View ArticleUrban Crime and Ethnicity
Using spatial data analysis techniques, we compare the spatial distribution of crime and the black population density across the London boroughs. We show that the higher is the density of the black...
View ArticleComparing Price Dispersion on and off the Internet Using Airline Transaction...
The internet presumably reduces search costs and creates an “efficient” market. Prior research quantifying the dispersion in the electronic market, however, has yielded mixed results. Some recent...
View ArticleRegulating Advertising in the Presence of Public Service Broadcasting
Television advertising levels in Europe are regulated according to the "Audiovisual Service Media Directive", where member states of the European Union usually impose stricter regulation on their...
View ArticleFeedback Loop Effects in Payment Card Markets: Empirical Evidence
While some studies have assumed that mature and well-established platforms do not exhibit feedback loop effects, other recent contributions have suggested that these effects may exist. Using a unique...
View ArticleShould Publicly Funded Postal Services be Reduced? A Cost-Benefit Analysis of...
We conduct, to our knowledge, the first cost-benefit analysis of the universal service obligation (USO) in the postal sector. Three alternatives are analysed that reduce delivery frequency and/or...
View ArticleInviting Competition to Achieve Critical Mass
In this paper we analyze a network market in which it is beneficial for a producer to invite competitors to share a market, even when this is not needed in order to affect consumer beliefs. Because of...
View ArticleThe Effects of Legacy Pricing Regulation on Adoption of Broadband Service in...
We focus on the role of the price of basic local telephone service on broadband adoption, to determine whether and to what extent overlapping legacy telephone policies interfere with the contemporary...
View ArticleThe Liftoff of Consumer Benefits from the Broadband Revolution
This paper uses both a discrete choice demand model and a direct survey method to derive robust measures of the contribution of home broadband to consumer welfare during the early years of broadband...
View ArticleResource Adequacy: Should Regulators Worry?
Regulators have proposed various institutional alternatives to secure network resource adequacy and reasonably priced electric power for consumers. These alternatives prompt many difficult questions:...
View ArticleCard Rewards and Cross-Subsidization in the Gasoline and Grocery Markets
Since many merchants charge consumers a single price regardless of payment method, payment card rewards programs may cause some consumers to indirectly subsidize others. From our consumer survey, we...
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