Social Networks in Economic History: Opportunities and Challenges

TY - JOUR

T1 - Social Networks in Economic History

T2 - Opportunities and Challenges

AU - Esteves, Rui

AU - Mesevage, Gabriel Francis

PY - 2019/10

Y1 - 2019/10

N2 - In this paper we survey the study of social networks and their application to economic history. We take the perspective of the applied researcher and focus on empirical methods, leaving out structural models and the literature on strategic network formation (games on networks). Our aim is to assist economic historians in identifying whether networks may be useful frameworks for their research agendas. We highlight the main challenges in using social network methods, namely, measurement error, data completeness, and the usual threats to identification of causal effects. We also review the burgeoning literature in economic history that applies network methods, organized along four main themes: markets, financial intermediation, politics and knowledge diffusion.

AB - In this paper we survey the study of social networks and their application to economic history. We take the perspective of the applied researcher and focus on empirical methods, leaving out structural models and the literature on strategic network formation (games on networks). Our aim is to assist economic historians in identifying whether networks may be useful frameworks for their research agendas. We highlight the main challenges in using social network methods, namely, measurement error, data completeness, and the usual threats to identification of causal effects. We also review the burgeoning literature in economic history that applies network methods, organized along four main themes: markets, financial intermediation, politics and knowledge diffusion.

U2 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eeh.2019.101299

DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eeh.2019.101299

M3 - Article

SN - 0014-4983

VL - 74

JO - EXPLORATIONS IN ECONOMIC HISTORY

JF - EXPLORATIONS IN ECONOMIC HISTORY

M1 - 101299

ER -