Bruce Weinberg
"Social Interactions with Endogenous Associations"
Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2007
Noon
Mershon Center for International Security Studies
1501 Neil Ave.
See a streaming video of this event. This streaming video requires RealPlayer. If you do not have RealPlayer, you can download it free.
Bruce Weinberg joined the Department of Economics at The Ohio State University after receiving his Ph.D. from
the University of Chicago. One line of his research focuses on the effects
of technological change and industrial shifts on the wage distribution. A
second line of research studies the determinants of youth outcomes and
behavior, with emphases on the effects of family background and
neighborhoods. A third line of work studies how age and geography affect
creativity. Weinberg is also a Research Associate at the Institute for Labor in
Bonn, and a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic
Research in Cambridge, Mass.
The paper that Weinberg will present develops a model of social interactions with endogenous association. People
are assumed to invest in relationships to maximize their utility. Even in a linear-in-means
model, when associations are endogenous, the effect of macro-group composition on
behavior is non-linear and varies across individuals.
The paper also shows that larger groups
facilitate sorting. Using data on associations among high school students, the paper provides a
range of evidence consistent with this model. Individuals associate with people whose
behaviors and characteristics are similar to their own. This tendency is stronger in large
groups. The paper also shows that behaviors vary within and between macro-groups in the way
predicted by endogenous association.
|
