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Identifying Network Ties from Panel Data: Theory and an Application to Tax Competition

Aureo de Paula, Imran Rasul, Pedro Souza

arXiv 16 Oct 2019 · Econometrics · publishedThe Review of Economic Studies (2024) · 23 citations (OpenAlex)

arXiv:1910.07452 · PDF · DOI · OpenAlex · Extracted main text

Abstract

Social interactions determine many economic behaviors, but information on social ties does not exist in most publicly available and widely used datasets. We present results on the identification of social networks from observational panel data that contains no information on social ties between agents. In the context of a canonical social interactions model, we provide sufficient conditions under which the social interactions matrix, endogenous and exogenous social effect parameters are all globally identified. While this result is relevant across different estimation strategies, we then describe how high-dimensional estimation techniques can be used to estimate the interactions model based on the Adaptive Elastic Net GMM method. We employ the method to study tax competition across US states. We find the identified social interactions matrix implies tax competition differs markedly from the common assumption of competition between geographically neighboring states, providing further insights for the long-standing debate on the relative roles of factor mobility and yardstick competition in driving tax setting behavior across states. Most broadly, our identification and application show the analysis of social interactions can be extended to economic realms where no network data exists.

Citation extraction

83
references
170
in-text mentions
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distinct cited
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appendix boundary found by appendix_command · 67% of the source is main text. Read the extracted text to check this.

Most heavily cited references

The works this paper leans on most, across its whole bibliography — not restricted to papers in our corpus. Ranked by composite intensity, which combines how often a work is mentioned, how many sections mention it, and how much of that falls in the main text rather than the appendix.

ReferenceIntensityMentionsSectionsMain text
1Manski, C. F (1993) Identification of Endogenous Social Effects: the reflection problem1.00054100%
2de Paula, A (2017) Econometrics of Network Models1.00053100%
3Blume, L. E., W. A. Brock, S. N. Durlauf, and R. Jayaraman (2015) Linear Social Interactions Models0.96510490%
4Bramoullé, Y., H. Djebbari, and B. Fortin (2009) Identification of Peer Effects Through Social Networks0.96510490%
5Manresa, E (2016) Estimating the Structure of Social Interactions Using Panel Data0.9285480%
6Caner, M. and H. H. Zhang (2014) Adaptive Elastic Net for Generalized Method of Moments0.90215473%
7Jackson, M., B. Rogers, and Y. Zenou (2017) The Economic Consequences of Social Network Structure0.84333100%
8Breza, E., A. G. Chandrasekhar, T. H. McCormick, and M. Pan (2020) Using aggregated relational data to feasibly identify network structure without network data0.81142100%
9Banerjee, A., A. G. Chandrasekhar, E. Duflo, and M. O. Jackson (2013) The Diffusion of Microfinance0.7373367%
10De Giorgi, G., M. Pellizzari, and S. Redaelli (2010) Identification of Social Interactions through Partially Overlapping Peer Groups0.73732100%

Showing the top 10 of 83 scored citations.

Cited by, within the corpus

arXiv econ.EM papers that cite this one, ranked by how heavily they lean on it.

Citing paperIntensityMentionsSections
1Dynamic Spatial Interaction Models for a Resource Allocator’s Decisions and Local Agents’ Multiple Activities0.81142
2Uniform Inference on High-dimensional Spatial Panel Networks0.73732
3Estimating Network Spillovers under Dense Measurement Error0.73732
4Estimation and Inference for Synthetic Control Methods with Spillover Effects0.64422
5Regression Discontinuity Design with Spillovers0.64422
6Recovering latent linkage structures and spillover effects with structural breaks in panel data models0.64422
7Estimation and Inference for Latent Dual Networks Using High-Dimensional IV Screening0.51121
8Fixed Effects and the Generalized Mundlak Estimator0.40511
9Spillovers of Program Benefits with Missing Network Links0.40511
102011.110840.40511