Global Social Interactions with Sequential Binary Decisions: The Case of Marriage, Divorce, and Stigma

Finn Christensen and Juergen Jung

No 2010-01, Working Papers from Towson University, Department of Economics

Abstract: This paper studies global social interactions in a stylized model of marriage and divorce with complementarities across agents. The key point of departure from traditional models of social interactions is that actions are interrelated and sequential. We establish existence and uniqueness results akin to those in traditional models. In contrast to these models, however, we show that the presence of strategic complementarities is no longer sufficient to generate a social multiplier that exceeds one in this environment. Self-fulfilling conformity, whereby a greater desire to conform at the individual level leads to greater homogeneity of choices in the aggregate, is not retained either. Some empirical implications are also discussed.

Keywords: Social interactions; social multiplier; self-fulfilling conformity; uniqueness under moderate social influence. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C72 D62 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 38 pages
Date: 2010-01, Revised 2010-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-law
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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http://webapps.towson.edu/cbe/economics/workingpapers/2010-01.pdf First version, 2010 (application/pdf)

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Journal Article: Global Social Interactions with Sequential Binary Decisions: The Case of Marriage, Divorce, and Stigma (2010)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:tow:wpaper:2010-01

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