Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/119552 
Year of Publication: 
2014
Series/Report no.: 
IFS Working Papers No. W14/34
Publisher: 
Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), London
Abstract: 
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.
Subjects: 
Networks
Social Effects
Peer Effects
Econometrics
Endogeneity
Measurement Error
Sampling Design
JEL: 
C31
C81
Z13
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.