Individual Search and Social Networks

Sanjeev Goyal, Stephanie Rosenkranz, Utz Weitzel and Vincent Buskens

No 172705, Climate Change and Sustainable Development from Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM)

Abstract: The explosion in online social networks motivates an enquiry into their structure and their welfare effects. A central feature of these networks is information sharing: online social networks lower the cost of getting information from others. These lower costs affect the attractiveness of individual search vis-a-vis a reliance on social networks. The paper reports the findings of an experiment on these effects. Our experiment shows that online networks can have large effects. Information acquisition is more dispersed and it is accompanied by denser social networks. Aggregate investment in information acquisition falls, but information available to individuals remains stable, due to increased networking. The overall effect is a significant increase in individual utility and aggregate welfare.

Keywords: Institutional; and; Behavioral; Economics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 45
Date: 2014-05
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/172705/files/NDL2014-049.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Individual Search and Social Networks (2014)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:feemcl:172705

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.172705

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