Unintended triadic closure in social networks: The strategic formation of research collaborations between French inventors
Language
EN
Article de revue
This item was published in
Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization. 2019, vol. 163, p. 218-238
English Abstract
Observing that most social networks are clustered, the literature often argues that agents are more willing to form links that close triangles. We challenge this idea by proposing a simple model of new collaboration formation ...Read more >
Observing that most social networks are clustered, the literature often argues that agents are more willing to form links that close triangles. We challenge this idea by proposing a simple model of new collaboration formation that shows why network clustering may arise even though agents do not “like” network closure. We address empirically this question on the longitudinal evolution of the French co-invention network, and find that two inventors are less likely to form a first research collaboration when they have common partners. Our findings further reveal the preferences of inventors towards forming non-redundant connections. © 2018Read less <
English Keywords
Patents
Social networks
Monte Carlo simulations
Closure
Conditional logit
Link formation