TY - JOUR
T1 - Networks in economic development
AU - Breza, Emily
AU - Chandrasekhar, Arun
AU - Golub, Benjamin
AU - Parvathaneni, Aneesha
N1 - Funding Information:
* Harvard University; e-mail: ebreza@fas.harvard.edu ** Stanford University; e-mail: arungc@stanford.edu *** Harvard University; e-mail: ben.golub@gmail.com **** Yale University; e-mail: aneesha.parvathaneni@yale.edu We thank the Foundations of Human Behavior Initiative at Harvard and the National Science Foundation (SES-1658940, SES-1629446). We are grateful to Matthew O. Jackson for useful conversations, as well as to Ria Granzier-Nakajima, Yixi Jiang, and Vasu Chaudhary for excellent research assistance. 1 By local we simply mean that each person has a distinct ‘neighborhood’, and the situation is not well-approximated by some uniform or homogeneous interaction within a large group. For book-length introductions to network analysis in economics, see Jackson (2010), Easley et al. (2010), and Goyal (2012). For a survey of field experiments in development, see Breza (2016). doi:10.1093/oxrep/grz025 © The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press. For permissions please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press.
PY - 2019/12/4
Y1 - 2019/12/4
N2 - This chapter surveys the implications of some studies in network economics research for economic development. We focus on information flow and risk-sharing-two topics where work in theory, empirics, and policy analysis have been especially intensive and complementary. In analysing information, we distinguish models of information diffusion and aggregation, highlight how different models imply very different guidance regarding the right way to seed information. In discussing risk-sharing, we look at the key frictions that impede efficient informal insurance, and some potential unintended consequences when policymakers intervene to help. Throughout, we stress practical insights that can be used with limited measurement of the details of networks.
AB - This chapter surveys the implications of some studies in network economics research for economic development. We focus on information flow and risk-sharing-two topics where work in theory, empirics, and policy analysis have been especially intensive and complementary. In analysing information, we distinguish models of information diffusion and aggregation, highlight how different models imply very different guidance regarding the right way to seed information. In discussing risk-sharing, we look at the key frictions that impede efficient informal insurance, and some potential unintended consequences when policymakers intervene to help. Throughout, we stress practical insights that can be used with limited measurement of the details of networks.
KW - information diffusion
KW - learning
KW - risk sharing
KW - social networks
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U2 - 10.1093/oxrep/grz025
DO - 10.1093/oxrep/grz025
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:85077755690
SN - 0266-903X
VL - 35
SP - 678
EP - 721
JO - Oxford Review of Economic Policy
JF - Oxford Review of Economic Policy
IS - 4
ER -
