• Graduate program
    • Why Tinbergen Institute?
    • Research Master
    • Admissions
    • Course Registration
    • Facilities
    • PhD Vacancies
    • Selected PhD Placements
    • Research Master Business Data Science
  • Research
  • Browse our Courses
  • Events
    • Summer School
      • Applied Public Policy Evaluation
      • Deep Learning
      • Economics of Blockchain and Digital Currencies
      • Economics of Climate Change
      • Foundations of Machine Learning with Applications in Python
      • From Preference to Choice: The Economic Theory of Decision-Making
      • Gender in Society
      • Machine Learning for Business
      • Marketing Research with Purpose
      • Sustainable Finance
      • Tuition Fees and Payment
      • Business Data Science Summer School Program
    • Events Calendar
    • Events Archive
    • Tinbergen Institute Lectures
    • 16th Tinbergen Institute Annual Conference
    • Annual Tinbergen Institute Conference
  • News
  • Alumni
Home | Events Archive | Who knows? The Effect of Information Access on Social Network Centrality
Seminar

Who knows? The Effect of Information Access on Social Network Centrality


  • Series
  • Speaker(s)
    Pedro CL Souza (Queen Mary University of London, United Kingdom)
  • Field
    Organizations and Markets
  • Location
    Erasmus University Rotterdam, Campus Woudestein, Polak 2-09
    Rotterdam
  • Date and time

    November 21, 2022
    11:30 - 12:30

Abstract
Network centrality plays a key role in many economic processes. Yet, the causal determinants of centrality are not well understood. We conducted a randomized experiment in Malawian boarding secondary schools, providing one fifth of students with exclusive access to an online information source throughout the school year. Using a panel of complete and detailed network data, we show that information access leads to a large and sustained increase in network centrality, as students form new strategic links. We calibrate and simulate a model of strategic network formation to demonstrate implications for network-based targeting, information diffusion, inequality and welfare.

To participate, please register here.