Title:  Social Networks with Misclassified or Unobserved Links

Speaker: Xi Qu, Shanghai Jiaotong University 

Time: 13:30 - 15:00 , 31 May 2021

On Zoom

Zoom ID：9316789264

Password：790971

About the speaker: 

Dr. Xi Qu is Associate Professor of Economics at Antai College of Economics and Management, Shanghai Jiao Tong University. She obtained her Bachelor’s and Master’s degree of Economics from Peking University in 2006 and 2008, and PhD from the Ohio State University in 2013.

Her research areas are in Econometrics theory and Regional economics, with a special focus on the spatial econometrics model and its applications in social network and peer effects. She has published articles in Journal of Econometrics, Econometric Theory, Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, Econometrics Journal, Regional Science and Urban Economics, Labour Economics, and so on.

Abstract:

We point identify and estimate linear social network models without observing any network links. The required data consist of many small networks of individuals, such as classrooms or villages, with individuals that are each only observed once. We apply our estimator to data from Tennessee’s Student/Teacher Achievement Ratio (STAR) Project. Without observing the latent network in each classroom, we identify and estimate peer and contextual effects on students’ performance in mathematics. We find that peer effects tend to be larger in bigger classes, and that increasing peer effects would significantly improve students’ average test scores.