arXiv 27 Feb 2026 · Econometrics
arXiv:2602.23594 · PDF · DOI · OpenAlex · Extracted main text
This paper develops a unifying theory of peer effects that treats the peer aggregator (the social norm mapping peers' actions into a scalar exposure) as the central behavioral primitive. We formulate peer influence as a norm game in which payoffs depend on own action and an exposure index, and we provide equilibrium existence and uniqueness for a broad class of aggregators. Using economically interpretable axioms, we organize commonly used exposure maps into a small taxonomy that nests linear-in-means, CES (peer-preference) norms, and smooth “attention-to-salient-peers” aggregators; rank-based quantile norms are treated as a complementary class. Building on this unification, we show that each aggregator induces an operator that governs how exogenous variation propagates through the network. Linear-in-means corresponds to constant transport (adjacency matrix), recovering the classic (friends-of-friends) instrument families. For nonlinear norms, operator becomes state- and preference-dependent and is characterized by the Jacobian of the exposure map evaluated at an exogenous predictor. This perspective yields geometry-induced instrument that exploit heterogeneity in marginal influence and nonredundant paths, and can remain informative when one-step moments or adjacency-power instruments become weak. Monte Carlo evidence and an application to NetHealth illustrate the practical implications across alternative aggregators and outcomes.
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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.
| Reference | Intensity | Mentions | Sections | Main text | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Boucher, Vincent and Rendall, Michelle and Ushchev, Philip and Zenou… (2024) Toward a general theory of peer effects | 1.000 | 9 | 4 | 100% |
| 2 | Manski, Charles F (1993) Identification of endogenous social effects: The reflection problem | 1.000 | 7 | 4 | 100% |
| 3 | Bramoullé, Yann and Djebbari, Habiba and Fortin, Bernard (2009) Identification of peer effects through social networks | 1.000 | 7 | 3 | 100% |
| 4 | Koenker, Roger and Bassett, Gilbert (1978) Regression Quantiles | 0.811 | 4 | 2 | 100% |
| 5 | Mat ejka, Filip and McKay, Alisdair (2015) Rational inattention to discrete choices: A new foundation for the multinomial logit model | 0.811 | 4 | 2 | 100% |
| 6 | McFadden, Daniel (1974) Conditional Logit Analysis of Qualitative Choice Behavior | 0.811 | 4 | 2 | 100% |
| 7 | Luce, R Duncan and others (1959) Individual choice behavior | 0.737 | 3 | 2 | 100% |
| 8 | Nesterov, Yu (2005) Smooth minimization of non-smooth functions | 0.737 | 3 | 2 | 100% |
| 9 | Brock, William A and Durlauf, Steven N (2001) Discrete choice with social interactions | 0.644 | 2 | 2 | 100% |
| 10 | Arrow, Kenneth J and Chenery, Hollis B and Minhas, Bagicha S and Sol… (1961) Capital-labor substitution and economic efficiency | 0.511 | 2 | 1 | 100% |
Showing the top 10 of 22 scored citations.