nep-net New Economics Papers
on Network Economics
Issue of 2021‒08‒23
six papers chosen by
Alfonso Rosa García
Universidad de Murcia

  1. A Multi-level Network Approach to Spillovers Analysis: An Application to the Maltese Domestic Investment Funds Sector By Meglioli, Francesco; Gauci, Stephanie
  2. Coworker Networks and the Role of Occupations in Job Finding By Gyetvai, Attila; Zhu, Maria
  3. Propagation and Amplification of Local Productivity Spillovers By Xavier Giroud; Simone Lenzu; Quinn Maingi; Holger Mueller
  4. Homophily and peer influence in early-stage new venture informal investment By Qin, Fei; Mickiewicz, Tomasz; Estrin, Saul
  5. The Slippery Slope from Pluralistic to Plural Societies By Campigotto, Nicola; Rapallini, Chiara; Rustichini, Aldo
  6. Third-Degree Price Discrimination in the Age of Big Data By Charlson, G.

  1. By: Meglioli, Francesco; Gauci, Stephanie
    Abstract: In this paper we present a new approach to analyse the interconnectedness between a macro-level network and a local-level network. Our methodology is developed on the Diebold and Yilmaz connectedness measure and it considers the presence of entities within a global network which can influence other entities within their own local network but are not relevant enough to influence the entities which do not belong to the same local network. This methodology is then applied to the Maltese domestic investment funds sector and we find that a high-level correlation between the domestic funds can transmit higher spillovers to the local stock exchange index and to the government bond secondary market prices. Moreover, a high correlation among the Maltese domestic investment funds can increase their vulnerability to shocks stemming from financial indices, and therefore, investment funds may potentially become a shock transmission channel. JEL Classification: C32, C58, G10, G23
    Keywords: contagion, herding behaviour, interconnectedness, investment funds, Network model, systemic risk
    Date: 2021–08
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:srk:srkwps:2021124&r=
  2. By: Gyetvai, Attila (Banco de Portugal); Zhu, Maria (Syracuse University)
    Abstract: Which former coworkers help displaced workers find jobs? We answer this question by studying occupational similarity in job finding networks. Using matched employer-employee data from Hungary, this paper relates the unemployment duration of displaced workers to the employment rate of their former coworker networks. We find that while coworkers from all occupations are helpful in job finding, there is significant heterogeneity in effects by occupation skill-level. For workers in low-skill jobs, coworkers who worked in the same narrow occupation as the displaced worker are the most useful network contacts. For workers in high-skill jobs, coworkers from different occupations are the most useful network contacts.
    Keywords: networks, job search, former coworkers, unemployment duration, skill heterogeneity
    JEL: J64 D85 J24
    Date: 2021–07
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14615&r=
  3. By: Xavier Giroud; Simone Lenzu; Quinn Maingi; Holger Mueller
    Abstract: This paper shows that local productivity spillovers propagate throughout the economy through the plant-level networks of multi-region firms. Using confidential Census plant-level data, we show that large manufacturing plant openings not only raise the productivity of local plants but also of distant plants hundreds of miles away, which belong to multi-region firms that are exposed to the local productivity spillover through one of their plants. To quantify the significance of plant-level networks for the propagation and amplification of local productivity shocks, we develop and estimate a quantitative spatial model in which plants of multi-region firms are linked through shared knowledge. Our model features heterogeneous regions, which interact through goods trade and labor markets, as well as within-location, across-plant heterogeneity in productivity, wages, and employment. Counterfactual exercises show that while knowledge sharing through plant-level networks amplifies the aggregate effects of local productivity shocks, it widens economic disparities between individual workers and regions in the economy.
    JEL: C51 C68 E23 E24 L23 O4 R12 R13 R3
    Date: 2021–07
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:29084&r=
  4. By: Qin, Fei; Mickiewicz, Tomasz; Estrin, Saul
    Abstract: Conceptualising early-stage new venture informal investors as co-entrepreneurs whose actions are socially embedded, we examine the role of social influence and how it interplays with entrepreneurial experience at the individual level leading to informal investment. We extend theories of social homophily and social influence to argue that informal investment decisions are influenced by shared experience and entrepreneurism in peer groups. We test our hypotheses with a multi-level model using first a large cross-country dataset and next in depth within a country. Our analysis reveals that both individual entrepreneurship experience and peer group-embedded experience significantly influence the likelihood that an individual becomes an early-stage investor. Furthermore, these social effects substitute for the lack of individual entrepreneurial experience.
    Keywords: informal investors; entrepreneurial experience; social homophily; peer influence; entrepreneurship capital; global entrepreneurship monitor (GEM); angel investors; Springer deal
    JEL: J1 F3 G3 R14 J01
    Date: 2021–08–03
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:110890&r=
  5. By: Campigotto, Nicola; Rapallini, Chiara; Rustichini, Aldo
    Abstract: Academic consensus about normative prescriptions on the ethnic and cultural composition of societies has been shifting in recent decades. It has evolved from what seemed desirable but was acknowledged to be unrealistic (the noble idea of a melting pot), to what is realistic because it has already happened, but might be undesirable in the long run: the multicultural diaspora. Plural societies, an unintended consequence of multiculturalism, lurk in the background. Thus scholars of social and economic questions, as well as societies, face a threehorned dilemma. We throw some light on the dilemma by examining school friendship networks in five European countries with recent immigration. Our results highlight the force of elective affinities in overcoming differences, but they also point to the countervailing forces of elective discordance that are currently driving increasing division.
    Keywords: Friendship,Homophily,Immigration,Networks,Social cohesion
    JEL: D85 J15 Z13
    Date: 2021
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:910&r=
  6. By: Charlson, G.
    Abstract: A platform holds information on the demographics of its users and wants maximise total surplus. The data generates a probability over which of two products a buyer prefers, with different data segmentations being more or less informative. The platform reveals segmentations of the data to two firms, one popular and one niche, preferring to reveal no information than completely revealing the consumer's type for certain. The platform can improve profits by revealing to both firms a segmentation where the niche firm is relatively popular, but still less popular than the other firm, potentially doing even better by revealing information asymmetrically. The platform has an incentive to provide more granular data in markets in which the niche firm is particularly unpopular or in which broad demographic categories are not particularly revelatory of type, suggesting that the profit associated with big data techniques differs depending on market characteristics.
    Keywords: Strategic interaction, network games, interventions, industrial organisation, platforms, hypergraphs
    JEL: D40 L10 L40
    Date: 2021–08–19
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cam:camdae:2159&r=

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