We study a setting in which individual players choose their partners as well as a mode of behavior in 2 x 2 anti-coordination games -- games where a player's best response is to behave differently than the opponent. We characterize the nature of equilibrium networks as well as study the effects...

In many economic and social contexts, individual players choose their partners and also decide on a mode of behavior in interactions with these partners. This paper develops a simple model to examine the interaction between partner choice and individual behavior in games of coordination. An...

The matching of individuals in teams is a key element in the functioning of an economy. The network of social ties can potentially transmit important information on abilities and reputations and also help mitigate matching frictions by facilitating interactions among ¿screened¿ individuals. We...

This paper examines the celebrated "Strength of weak ties" theory of Granovetter(1973). We formalize the theory in terms of two hypotheses: one, for any threeplayers with two links present, the probability of a third link being present isincreasing in the strength of the two ties, and two, the...

This paper models the dynamic process through which a large society may succeed in building up its "social capital" by establishing a stable and dense pattern of interaction among its members. In the model, agents interact according to a collection of (idyosincratic) infinitely repeated...

Consider a large (continuum) population of finitely-lived agents organized in hierarchical levels.Every period, agents are matched to play a certain symmetric game. On the basis of the payoffsobtained, a certain p-fraction of those who performed best at each level are promoted upwords. Onthe...

This paper studies a stylized model of local interaction where agents choose from an ever increasing set of vertically ranked actions, e.g. technologies. The driving forces of the model are infrequent upward shifts ("updates"), followed by a rapid process of local imitation ("diffusion"). Our...

The paper studies an inter-temporal market context in which firms innovate, imitate, and compete in quantities and technological choices each period. Potential entrants enter if there are profitable opportunities; incumbent firms exit when they go bankrupt. The key aspect of the model is that...

We study a market for a homogeneous good in which firms adjust theirproduction decisions on the basis of imitation, learning from own experience, and local experimentation.For any fixed set of firms (more than one), long run behavior settles on a symmetric marginal-cost pricingequlibrium. When...

When far-sighted agents may adjust their behavior only gradually , the issue of equilibrium selection in games becomes one of tension between "history" and "expectations". This paper analyzes whether, in this context, a planner may intervene successfully through short-run policies which redirect...