This paper examines the celebrated “strength of weak ties” theory of Granovetter (1973). We examine two hypotheses implied by the theory: one, for any three players with two links present, the probability of a third link being present is increasing in the strength of the two ties, and two, the...

This paper aims to present the importance of weak ties in social networks for sharing information at personal level, across departments in a company, as well as between managers that seek business opportunities. Also, the paper shows that complex knowledge requires strong ties in order to be...

We show that among workers whose network is weaker than formal (nonnetwork) channels, those finding a job through the network should have higher wages than those finding a job through formal channels. Moreover, this wage differential is decreasing in network strength. We test these implications...

Social networks transmitting covert or sensitive information cannot use all ties for this purpose. Rather, they can only use a subset of ties that are strong enough to be “trusted”. This paper addresses whether it is still possible, under this restriction, for information to be transmitted...

This paper develops a search model with heterogeneous workers and social networks. High ability workers are more productive and have a larger number of professional contacts. Firms have a choice between a high cost vacancy in the regular labour market and a low cost job opening in the referral...