Showing 1 - 10 of 17
similar preferences---a phenomenon known as homophily. Using this model, we resolve a puzzle in the literature: theoretical … models predict that preference diversity helps learning, and homophily slows learning, while empirical work suggests the … opposite. We find that the density of network connections determines the impact of preference diversity and homophily on …
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10010699218
To study how economic fundamentals affect the formation of social networks, a model is needed that (i) has agents responding rationally to incentives (ii) can be taken to the data. This paper combines game-theoretic and statistical approaches to network formation in order to develop such a...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10008673516
homophily) and from the existence of unobservables across agents that are correlated. In the absence of experimental variation …
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10010905471
This paper uses a randomized experiment to study whether social networks affect vote choice. In a fiercely contested presidential election in Peru with ten candidates, only 35% of subjects were aware how their friends intended to vote. We compare people who were randomly informed how one of...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10010905470
This paper studies the competition between firms for influencers in a network. Firms spend effort to convince influencers to recommend their products. The analysis identifies the offensive and defensive roles of spending on influencers. The value of an influencer only depends on the in-degree...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10010905472
In this paper, we examine how a seller sells a product/service with a positive consumption externality, and customers are uncertain about the product's/service's value. Because early adopters learn this value, we consider the customers' intrinsic signaling incentives and positive feedback...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10010930535
We model consumer social networks as information collection media and examine two major issues: first, how consumers construct product fit signals based on product feedbacks collected from their social connections to assist with their purchase decisions, and second, how a retailer can benefit...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10010930536
Many video ads are designed to go viral, so that the total number of views they receive depends on customers sharing the ads with their friends. This paper explores the relationship between achieving this endogenous reach and the effectiveness of the ad at persuading a consumer to purchase or...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10009368494
It has been conjectured that the peer-based recommendations associated with electronic commerce lead to a redistribution of demand from popular products or "blockbusters" to less popular or "niche" products, and that electronic markets will therefore be characterized by a "long tail" of demand...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10005040808
We use variation in wind speeds at surfing locations in Switzerland as exogenous shifters of users' propensity to post content about their surfing activity onto an online social network. We exploit this variation to test whether users' social ties on the network have a causal effect on their...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10008509379