Continuous homophily and clustering in random networks

Florian Gauer and Jakob Landwehr
Additional contact information
Jakob Landwehr: Center for Mathematical Economics, Bielefeld University

No 515, Center for Mathematical Economics Working Papers from Center for Mathematical Economics, Bielefeld University

Abstract: We propose a random network model incorporating heterogeneity of agents and a continuous notion of homophily. Unlike the vast majority of the corresponding economic literature, we capture homophily in terms of similarity rather than equality of agents. We show that if links between similar agents are indeed more likely, our homophilous random network model exhibits clustering. Moreover, simulations indicate that the well-known small-world phenomenon is preserved even at high homophily levels. As a possible application we provide a stylized labor market model, where a firm can hire a worker via the social network.

Keywords: Random Graphs; Homophily; Clustering; Small-World Phenomenon; Network Formation; Labor Market Search (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 38
Date: 2014-12-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ger, nep-net and nep-soc
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://pub.uni-bielefeld.de/download/2708677/2903656 First Version, 2014 (application/x-download)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bie:wpaper:515

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Center for Mathematical Economics Working Papers from Center for Mathematical Economics, Bielefeld University Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Bettina Weingarten ().