“Stability and resilience of alliances: A network approach" with Arnold Polanski (R & R Journal of Public Economics).
Public goods models of alliances focus on the trade-off between the benefits of a collectively provided public good and private contribution costs. Yet this line of inquiry has also prompted another fundamental question: what makes alliances endure? We contribute characterize alliance stability and resilience in terms of graph-theoretical concepts, offering a structural perspective on why some alliances persist and other do not. Our framework embeds alliances in node- and link-weighted networks, where connections between allies represent positive externalities, while connections between allies and adversaries capture negative externalities. We relate the resilience of both alliances and their members to the core numbers of the latter in the subnetwork they induce. Furthermore, we explore the strategic stability of alliances when members can actively influence their externalities through costly contributions and redistribution. Applying this framework, we assess the resilience and stability of the North Atlantic Alliance.
“The Curse of Centrality in Weighted Networks" with David Rojo Arjona (JMP).
In a wide range of economic, social, and political networks, agents allocate a finite resource, such as time, across their differently valued connections with other agents. A growing theoretical literature investigates how these pre-existing weighted networks affect optimal allocations. This paper offers, instead, an empirical analysis identifying the effect of elements of the network on actual allocations. For that, we design a novel experiment and analyze the resulting compositional data. By focusing on conflict networks, we find that resources allocated against individuals with higher centrality exceed the theoretical benchmarks: the curse of centrality.
Cortes-Corrales, S., & Gorny, P. M. (2024). How strength asymmetries shape multi-sided conflicts. Economic Theory, 1-40.
Paez, D. C., Cortés-Corrales, S., Jimenez-Mora, M. A., Gutiérrez, A., Arango-Paternina, C. M., & Duperly, J. (2024). Health-related fitness in medical students: a curricular intervention in Bogota, Colombia. BMC Public Health, 24(1), 320.
García, D., Alcalá, L., Quintero, J., Cortés, S., Brochero, H., & Carrasquilla, G. (2017). Effect of the type and number of washes in the efficacy of long lasting insecticidal nets for Aedes aegypti control in Girardot, Colombia. Biomédica, 37(Sup. 2), 180-186.
Arciniegas Calle, M. C., Lobelo, F., Jiménez, M. A., Páez, D. C., Cortés, S., De Lima, A., & Duperly, J. (2016). One-day workshop-based training improves physical activity prescription knowledge in Latin American physicians: a pre-test post-test study. BMC Public Health, 16, 1-12.
Higuera-Mendieta, D. R., Cortés-Corrales, S., Quintero, J., & González-Uribe, C. (2016). KAP surveys and dengue control in Colombia: disentangling the effect of sociodemographic factors using multiple correspondence analysis. PLoS neglected tropical diseases, 10(9), e0005016.
Castañeda, J., Gómez, K., Corrales, L., & Cortés, S. (2016). A profile of resistance in bacteria and the mechanisms associated due to the presence of the enzyme NDM-1: a systematic review. Nova, 14(25), 95-111.
Alfonso-Sierra, E., Basso, C., Beltrán-Ayala, E., Mitchell-Foster, K., Quintero, J., Cortés, S., ... & Kroeger, A. (2016). Innovative dengue vector control interventions in Latin America: what do they cost?. Pathogens and Global Health, 110(1), 14-24.
García-Betancourt, T., Higuera-Mendieta, D. R., González-Uribe, C., Cortés, S., & Quintero, J. (2015). Understanding water storage practices of urban residents of an endemic dengue area in Colombia: perceptions, rationale and socio-demographic characteristics. PLoS One, 10(6), e0129054.
Quintero, J., García-Betancourt, T., Cortés, S., García, D., Alcalá, L., González-Uribe, C., ... & Carrasquilla, G. (2015). Effectiveness and feasibility of long-lasting insecticide-treated curtains and water container covers for dengue vector control in Colombia: a cluster randomised trial. Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 109(2), 116-125.
"The lottery Colonel Blotto game with battlefield-specific fixed costs" with Dan Kovenock and David Rojo Arjona (Slides).
We examine two-player, n-battlefield, symmetric, Colonel Blotto games with lottery contest success functions in which each player is endowed with a use-it-or-lose-it budget, of a one-dimensional resource (e.g, time, money or soldiers). Players simultaneously allocate their budget across the n battlefields to maximize the expected number of battlefields won. We alter the standard treatment of this game by assuming that, for any strictly positive allocation to a battlefield, a player must pay a constant, battlefield-specific fixed cost (denominated in units of the resource), from the budget as well. This adds a new dimension to the analysis, the trade-off that exists between the extensive margin – the number of battlefields entered – and the intensive margin – the strength of presence within a given battlefield.
“Survival in Economic Networks" with Arnold Polanski .
We study how network structure influences long-run survival of competitors in a constant-sum environment. We develop a dynamic model of competition with exit on an exogenous bipartite network of firms and markets. Firms engage in repeated Bertrand competition in each market they serve, and may go bankrupt (exit) if out-competed. Using this framework, we derive conditions under which the network's topology guarantees the elimination of certain firms. We establish a connectivity threshold such that if the network is sufficiently dense then only a subset of firms can survive in the steady state. We provide general bounds on the number of surviving firms in terms of the degree distribution of the network, yielding both lower and upper limits. In particular, it shows that the set of surviving firms corresponds to a large independent set of the network, and thus survival is constrained by degree heterogeneity.
“Team work organisation as a learning device" with David Rojo Arjona and Piercarlo Zanchettin.
We study a new form of screening via experimental workers-to-tasks allocations in an organizational (firm) setting characterized by a network of tasks which exhibit input (team) complementarity. The firm has incomplete information about the workers' productivities, and dynamically allocates workers to tasks over a (finite or infinite) time horizon. An interesting trade-off arises between eliciting information via sub-optimal allocations (in view of the achieved interim information) and maximizing expected profits (conditional to the interim information).
“Focality and asymmetry in multi-battle all-pay contests” with Subhasish Chowdhury, Dan Kovenock and David Rojo Arjona.
We examine experimentally the effects of “focality" on individual behaviour in Colonel Blotto games. The experimental data of this project has already been collected. We are conducting the empirical analysis at the moment.
“Research program for the monitoring of the resistance of antimicrobe in Colombia with a One Health Approach". with Aura Lucia Leal Castro, Juliana Quintero, Nohemi Caballero, Laura Harvey, Alexandra Porras and Dario Londono.
The objective of this project is to create a surveillance programme for RAM in sewage waters following the One Health approach with the aim of contributing the National Plan of Surveillance of RAM of the Colombian Government.
To achieve our objective, we propose a research programme based on three sequential phases: i) diagnosis of the relevant factors contributing to RAM based on the interactions of humans, animals, and the environment, ii) design of scalable system of surveillance based on the initial diagnosis and iii) cost-benefit evaluation of the proposed system. The first the phase of the project will use a mixed methods approach to evaluate of the current system of surveillance of RAM, implemented by the local/country authorities, and an initial data collection process to identify biological, environmental, socio-economic, and cultural factors that are contributing to the levels of RAM in and in the surroundings of the Colombia’s capital city.