Empirical methods for networks data: Social effects, network formation and measurement error

Arbeitspapier

In many contexts we may be interested in understanding whether direct connections between agents, such as declared friendships in a classroom or family links in a rural village, affect their outcomes. In this paper we review the literature studying econometric methods for the analysis of social networks. We begin by providing a common framework for models of social effects, a class that includes the 'linear-in-means' local average model, the local aggregate model, and models where network statistics affect outcomes. We discuss identification of these models using both observational and experimental/quasi-experimental data. We then discuss models of network formation, drawing on a range of literatures to cover purely predictive models, reduced form models, and structural models, including those with a strategic element. Finally we discuss how one might collect data on networks, and the measurement error issues caused by sampling of networks, as well as measurement error more broadly.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IFS Working Papers ; No. W14/34

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models: Cross-Sectional Models; Spatial Models; Treatment Effect Models; Quantile Regressions; Social Interaction Models ; Methodology for Collecting, Estimating, and Organizing Microeconomic Data; Data Access ; Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification
• Subject: Networks ; Social Effects ; Peer Effects ; Econometrics ; Endogeneity ; Measurement Error ; Sampling Design

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Advani, Arun ; Malde, Bansi
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS)
• (where): London
• (when): 2014

Further information

• DOI: doi:10.1920/wp.ifs.2014.1434
• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/119552
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:43 AM CET