Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/56860 
Year of Publication: 
2011
Series/Report no.: 
Jena Economic Research Papers No. 2011,060
Publisher: 
Friedrich Schiller University Jena and Max Planck Institute of Economics, Jena
Abstract: 
In this paper, we focus on the analysis of individual decision making for the formation of social networks, using experimentally generated data. We first analyse the determinants of the individual demand for links under the assumption of agents' static expectations. The results of this exercise subsequently allow us to identify patterns of behaviour that can be subsumed in three strategies of link formation: 1) reciprocator strategy - players propose links to those from whom they have received link proposals in the previous round; 2) myopic best response strategy - players aim to profit from maximisation; 3) opportunistic strategy - players reciprocate link proposals to those who have the largest number of connections. We find that these strategies explain approximately 76% of the observed choices. We finally estimate a mixture model to highlight the proportion of the population who adopt each of these strategies.
Subjects: 
network formation
experiments
multivariate probit models
mixture models
JEL: 
C33
C35
C90
D85
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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