Research

Working Papers:

1. Bad Networks (with R. Holden and R. Akerlof) (Slides from ESAM 2023 – Link to paper coming soon)

We analyze a model of social networks where there are benefits and costs to being on the network, and an opportunity cost to being off the network. This leads to multiple equilibria--the network can be large or small. When these costs scale with network size we show that the small network can be socially optimal, even when the large network forms in decentralized equilibrium. We offer conditions under which a benevolent planner in fact finds it optimal to ban the network altogether.

In Progress:

1. Strategic Diffusion: Public Goods vs. Public Bads (with A. Campbell and Y. Zenou) (details + link coming soon)

2. Learning with Self-Feedback

Preprint:

1. The Stochastic Reproduction Number of a Virus (with R. Holden). Preprint available: Covid Economics | Centre for Economic Policy Research, Issue 41