We study how knowledge about the social network of an individual researcher, as embodied in his coauthor relations, helps us in developing a more accurate prediction of his or her future productivity. We find that incorporating information about coauthor networks leads to a modest improvement in...

This paper examines the existence and magnitude of network effects in the matching of workteams. We study the formation of co-author relations among economists over a thirty year period. Our principal finding is that a collaboration emerges faster among two authors if they are closer in the...

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...

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...

We study the evolution of social distance among economists over the period 1970–2000. While the number of economists has more than doubled, the distance between them, which was already small, has declined significantly. The key to understanding the short average distances is the observation...

This discussion paper has resulted in a publication in the <A href="http://aa4pq3kw5l.search.serialssolutions.com/directLink?&atitle=Economics%3A%20An%20Emerging%20Small%20World&author=Sanjeev%20Goyal%3B%20Marco%20J%20van%20der%20Leij%3B%20José%20Luis%20Moraga%2DGonzález&issn=00223808&title=The%20Journal%20of%20Political%20Economy&volume=114&issue=2&date=20060401&spage=403&id=doi:&sid=ProQ_ss&genre=article&lang=en">'Journal of Political Economy'</A>.<P>This paper examines the small world hypothesis. The first part of the paper presents empirical evidence on the evolution of a particular world: the world of journal publishing economists during the period...</p></a>

This paper examines the small world hypothesis. The first part of the paper presents empirical evidence on the evolution of a particular world: the world of journal publishing economists during the period 1970-2000. We find that in the 1970's the world of economics was a collection of islands,...

This paper examines the small world hypothesis. The first part of the paper presents empirical evidence on the evolution of a particular world: the world of journal publishing economists during the period 1970-2000. We find that in the 1970's the world of economics was a collection of islands....

The structures of social interaction affect individual behavior and economic performance in important ways. This leads us to ask: does the architecture of social interaction exhibit particular patterns and are these patterns stable over time? We examine interaction among economists by looking at...

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...