Related papers: Peer effects and endogenous social interactions
Our network of acquaintances determines how we get exposed to ideas, products, or cultural artworks (books, music, movies, etc.). Though this principle is part of our common sense, little is known about the specific pathways through which…
We investigate interaction networks that we derive from multivariate time series with methods frequently employed in diverse scientific fields such as biology, quantitative finance, physics, earth and climate sciences, and the…
This paper studies a linear model for multidimensional panel data of three or more dimensions with unobserved interactive fixed-effects. The main estimator uses a Neyman-orthogonal approach, and requires two preliminary steps. First, the…
Decisions by humans depend on their estimations given some uncertain sensory data. These decisions can also be influenced by the behavior of others. Here we present a mathematical model to quantify this influence, inviting a further study…
This paper presents a three-step empirical framework for optimizing classroom assignments under endogenous peer effects, using data from the China Education Panel Survey (CEPS). We design \textit{PeerNN}, a neural network that mimics…
This paper considers fixed effects estimation and inference in linear and nonlinear panel data models with random coefficients and endogenous regressors. The quantities of interest -- means, variances, and other moments of the random…
Motivated by an analysis of causal mechanism from economic stress to entrepreneurial withdrawals through depressed affect, we develop a two-layer generalized varying coefficient mediation model. This model captures the bridging effects of…
The interaction of two binary variables, assumed to be empirical observations, has three degrees of freedom when expressed as a matrix of frequencies. Usually, the size of causal influence of one variable on the other is calculated as a…
We study a regression model with a huge number of interacting variables. We consider a specific approximation of the regression function under two ssumptions: (i) there exists a sparse representation of the regression function in a…
While the importance of peer influences has been demonstrated in several studies, little is known about the underlying mechanisms of active peer effects in residential photovoltaic (PV) diffusion. Empirical evidence indicates that the…
In many domains of life, business and management, numerous problems are addressed by small groups of individuals engaged in face-to-face discussions. While research in social psychology has a long history of studying the determinants of…
Many societal challenges, such as climate change or disease outbreaks, require coordinated behavioral changes. For many behaviors, the tendency of individuals to adhere to social norms can reinforce the status quo. However, these same…
We consider the problem of estimating social influence, the effect that a person's behavior has on the future behavior of their peers. The key challenge is that shared behavior between friends could be equally explained by influence or by…
In public opinion studies, the relationships between opinions on different topics are likely to shift based on the characteristics of the respondents. Thus, understanding the complexities of public opinion requires methods that can account…
When opinion spread is studied, peer pressure is often modeled by interactions of more than two individuals (higher-order interactions). In our work, we introduce a two-layer random hypergraph model, in which hyperedges represent households…
Different measures have been proposed to predict whether individuals will adopt a new behavior in online social networks, given the influence produced by their neighbors. In this paper, we show one can achieve significant improvement over…
Empirical economists are often deterred from the application of fixed effects binary choice models mainly for two reasons: the incidental parameter problem and the computational challenge even in moderately large panels. Using the example…
We consider a nonparametric regression model with continuous endogenous independent variables when only discrete instruments are available that are independent of the error term. Although this framework is very relevant for applied…
The Internet is a loose amalgamation of independent service providers acting in their own self-interest. We examine the implications of this economic reality on peering relationships. Specifically, we consider how the incentives of the…
Given a set of several inputs into a system (e.g., independent variables characterizing stimuli) and a set of several stochastically non-independent outputs (e.g., random variables describing different aspects of responses), how can one…