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Strong Ties in a Small World

Marco van der Leij and Sanjeev Goyal

No 06-008/1, Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers from Tinbergen Institute

Abstract: This discussion paper led to a publication in the 'Review of Network Economics' , 2011, 10(2), 1-20.

In this paper we test the celebrated `Strength of weak ties' theory of Granovetter (1973). We test two hypotheses on the network structure in a data set of collaborating economists. While we find support for the hypothesis of transitivity of strong ties, we reject the hypothesis that weak ties reduce distance more than strong ties do. We relate this surprising result to two different views of society. Whereas the classical view has been that society consists of different communities with strong ties within communities and weak ties between, the community of economic researchers has an interlinked star structure with strong ties between the stars. In such a world, strong ties are more important than weak ties.

Keywords: network structure; social network; social capital; economic sociology; coauthorship; research; collaboration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A14 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2006-06-10
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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Journal Article: Strong Ties in a Small World (2011) Downloads
Working Paper: Strong ties in a small world (2010) Downloads
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