Archive page for ECON 300, Social, Economic, and Financial Networks.
Syllabus
Books
Christakis, Nicholas A. and James H. Fowler. 2011. “Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives-How Your Friends’ Friends’ Friends Affect Everything You Feel, Think, and Do.” Paperback. Back Bay Books: New York. (ISBN 0316036137)
Easley, David and Jon Kleinberg. 2010. “Networks, Crowds, and Markets: Reasoning About a Highly Connected World.” Cambridge University Press: New York. (ISBN 9780521195331)
Kadushin, Charles. 2012. “Understanding Social Networks: Theories, Concepts, and Findings.” Oxford University Press: New York. (ISBN 9780195379471)
Watts, Duncan J. 2003. “Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age.” W.W. Norton & Company: New York. (ISBN9780393325423)
Lectures
Material for each lecture and quiz will be listed below.
Lecture 1: Introduction (and now try this - Lecture 1 Papers "pw")
- Christakis & Fowler (3-32): In the Thick of It
- Kadushin (3-12): Introduction
- Watts (13-42): The Connected Age
- Milgram: "The Small-World Problem" (1967)
- Travers & Milgram: An Experimental Study of the Small-World Problem (1969)
- Granovetter: The Strength of Weak Ties (1973)
- Mathematica: Exercise Notes
Lecture 2: What does this have to do with economics?
- Watts (43-68):The Origins of "New" Science
- Kirman: "Whom or What Does the Representative Agent Represent?" (1992)
- Hartley: "The Orgins of the Representative Agent" (1996)
- Tesfatsion: "Introductory Notes on Rational Expectations" (2016)
- Williamson: "Notes on Macroeconomic Theory" (1999)
- Romer: "The Trouble with Macroeconomics" (2016), An update
Lecture 3: Small Worlds ("pw")
- Watts (69-100): Small Worlds
- Kadushin (108-134): The Small World, Circles, and Communities
- Easley and Kleinberg (Ch 20): The Small-World Phenomenon
- Watts: "Network Dynamics and the Small-World Phenomenon" (1999) - ?? model
- Newman: "Models of the Small World" (2000)
- Kogut & Walker: "The Small World of Germany and the Duration of National Networks" (2001)
- Parker on Methodological Individualism v. Methodological Holism
- Watts-Strogatz Matlab code - put in your working directory
Lecture 4: Love, Health, and Disease ("pw")
- Probability for Small Worlds/Scale-Free (must login to Dropbox)
- Probability Distributions - a story on Power Laws from Mandelbrot (powerlaws)
- Barabasi and Albert: "Emergence of Scaling in Random Networks" (1999)
- Amaral et al.: "Classes of Small World Networks" (2000)
- Christakis and Fowler (61-134): Love the One You're With & This Hurts Me as Much as it Hurts You
- Watts (162-194): Epidemics and Failures - Also (101-129) Beyond the Small World
- Easley and Kleinberg (Ch 21): Epidemics - up through 21.3 SIR Model
Relative standing
- Solnick and Hemenway: "Is more always better?: A survey on positional concerns" (1998)
Mating
- Jin et al.: "Preliminary Evidence Regarding the Hypothesis That the Sex Ratio at Sexual Maturity May Affect Longevity in Men" (2010)
- Greenwood et al.: "Marry Your Like: Assortative Mating and Income Inequality"
- Angrist: "How do Sex Ratios Affect Marriage and Labor Markets? Evidence from America's Second Generation" (2002)
Obesity
- Christakis and Fowler: "The Spread of Obesity in a Large Social Network Over 32 Years" (2007)
- Andersson: "Desire for Weight Loss, Weight-Related Social Contact, and Body Mass Outcomes" (2016)
Lecture 5: Economics & Finance: Part I ("pw")
Lecture 6: Economics & Finance: Part II ("pw") same readings
General Reading
- Christakis and Fowler (135-171): The Buck Stops Here
- Three Ways to Stop a Bank Run (podcast by Planet Money)
- Watts (195-219): Decisions, Delusions, and the Madness of Crowds and (220-252) Thresholds, Cascades, and Predictability
- Kadushin (135-161): Networks, Influence, and Diffusion
- Cull et al. (2009): Microfinance Meets the Market (free access)
- Brock-New Yorker: Millions for Millions (free access)
Minsky
- Cassidy (Ch 16 from How Markets Fail) - Hyman Minsky and Ponzi Finance ("pw")
- Mandelbrot (Ch 1 & 2 from The Misbehavior of Markets) - Risk, Ruin, and Reward and By the Toss of a Coin or the Flight of an Arrow ("pw")
- Mandelbrot helps explain power laws and Cauchy distributions
Bitcoin & Blockchain
- JEP - Bohme et al. (2015) Bitcoin: Economics, Technology, and Governance(free access)
- An Introduction to Bitcoin and Blockchain Technology
- PWC on Blockchain in the Financial Services Industry
- IBM on the Basics of Blockchain
- WEF on "Beyond Bitcoin"
Bubbles & Herding
- Shiller on Keynes Beauty Contest
- Shiller:Conversation, Information, and Herd Behavior("pw")
- Banerjee:A Simple Model of Herd Behavior("pw")
Lecture 7: Management & Production ("pw") same readings
General Reading
- Watts (253-289): Innovation, Adaptation, and Recovery
- Kadushin (90-107): Organizations and Networks
- Surowicki (192-223): The Wisdom of Crowds (The Company: Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss?) ("pw")
Firm Structure
- Coase: The Nature of the Firm ("pw")
- Williamson: The Economics of Organization: The Transaction Cost Approach ("pw")
- Freeman, Blasi, Kruse: Introduction to "Shared Capitalism at Work: Employee Ownership, Profit and Gain Sharing, and Broad-based Stock Options" ("pw")
Technology Adoption
- Anderson: Digital divide persists even as lower-income Americans make gains in tech adoption
- McGrath: The Pace of Technology Adoption is Speeding Up
Lecture 8: Financial Networks ("pw")
General Reading
- McConnell, Brue, and Flynn on "Money Creation" Read this first!
Banking Networks
- Allen & Gale "Financial Contagion"
- Babus "Formation of Financial Networks"
- Boss et al. "Network Topology of the Interbank Market"
- Bech and Atalay "The Topology of the Federal Funds Market"
- Soramaki et al. "Topology of Interbank Payment Flows"
Systemic Risk and Contagion
- Battiston & Caldarelli "Systemic Risk in Financial Networks"
- Glasserman & Young "Contagion in Financial Networks"
- Laeven & Valencia "Systemic Banking Crises Database: An Update"
- Neveu "A Survey of Network-Based Analysis and Systemic Risk Measurement"