STICERD Economic Theory Seminars
Experimentation in Networks
Moritz Meyer ter-Vehn (UCLA)
Thursday 04 May 2023 15:30 - 17:00
This event is both online and in person
SAL 3.05, 3rd Floor Conference Room, Sir Arthur Lewis Building, LSE, 32 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London WC2A 3PH
Many of our seminars and public events this year will continue as in person or as hybrid (online and in person) events. Please check our website listings and Twitter feed @STICERD_LSE for updates.
Unless otherwise specified, in-person seminars are open to the public.
Those unable to join the seminars in-person are welcome to participate via zoom if the event is hybrid.
About this event
We introduce a model of strategic experimentation on social networks where forward-looking agents learn from their own and neighbours' successes. In equilibrium, private discovery is followed by social diffusion. Social learning crowds out own experimentation, so total information decreases with network density; we determine density thresholds below which agents asymptotically learn the state. In contrast, agent welfare is single-peaked in network density, and achieves a second-best benchmark level at intermediate levels that achieve a balance between discovery and diffusion. We also show how learning and welfare differ across directed, undirected and clustered networks.
Economic Theory Seminars are held on Thursdays in term time at 15:30-17:00, both ONLINE and IN PERSON in 32L 3.05.
Seminar organisers: Dr Andrew Ellis and Dr Christopher Sandmann.
For further information please contact Sadia Ali: s.ali43@lse.ac.uk.
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This event will take place in SAL 3.05, 3rd Floor Conference Room, Sir Arthur Lewis Building, LSE, 32 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London WC2A 3PH.
The building is labelled SAL on the map. Enter the building via Lincoln's Inn Fields.
