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Meeting Strangers and Friends of Friends: How Random Are Social Networks?

Author

Listed:
  • Matthew O. Jackson
  • Brian W. Rogers
Abstract
We present a dynamic model of network formation where nodes find other nodes with whom to form links in two ways: some are found uniformly at random, while others are found by searching locally through the current structure of the network (e.g., meeting friends of friends). This combination of meeting processes results in a spectrum of features exhibited by large social networks, including the presence of more high- and low-degree nodes than when links are formed independently at random, having low distances between nodes in the network, and having high clustering of links on a local level. We fit the model to data from six networks and impute the relative ratio of random to network-based meetings in link formation, which turns out to vary dramatically across applications. We show that as the random/network-based meeting ratio varies, the resulting degree distributions can be ordered in the sense of stochastic dominance, which allows us to infer how the formation process affects average utility in the network. (JEL D85, Z13)

Suggested Citation

  • Matthew O. Jackson & Brian W. Rogers, 2007. "Meeting Strangers and Friends of Friends: How Random Are Social Networks?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 97(3), pages 890-915, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aecrev:v:97:y:2007:i:3:p:890-915
    Note: DOI: 10.1257/aer.97.3.890
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    File URL: http://www.aeaweb.org/aer/data/june07/20050069_data.zip
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Réka Albert & Hawoong Jeong & Albert-László Barabási, 1999. "Diameter of the World-Wide Web," Nature, Nature, vol. 401(6749), pages 130-131, September.
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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D85 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Network Formation
    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification

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    1. Meeting Strangers and Friends of Friends: How Random Are Social Networks? (AER 2007) in ReplicationWiki

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