An Econometric Model of Network Formation with an Application to Board Interlocks between Firms

The paper provides a framework for partially identifying the parameters governing agents’ preferences in a static game of network formation with interdependent link decisions, complete information, and transferable or non-transferable payoffs. The proposed methodology attenuates the computational difficulties arising at the inference stage - due to the huge number of moment inequalities characterising the sharp identified set and the impossibility of brute-force calculating the integrals entering them - by decomposing the network formation game into local games which have a structure similar to entry games and are such that the network formation game is in equilibrium if and only if each local game is in equilibrium. As an empirical illustration of the developed procedure, the paper estimates firms’ incentives for having executives sitting on the board of competitors, using Italian data

Identification and inference in discrete choice models with imperfect information

In this paper we study identification and inference of preference parameters in a single-agent, static, discrete choice model where the decision maker may face attentional limits precluding her to exhaustively process information about the payoffs of the available alternatives. By leveraging on the notion of one-player Bayesian Correlated Equilibrium in Bergemann and Morris (2016), we provide a tractable characterisation of the sharp identified set and discuss inference under minimal assumptions on the amount of information processed by the decision maker and under no assumptions on the rule with which the decision maker resolves ties. Simulations reveal that the obtained bounds on the preference parameters can be tight in several settings of empirical interest

Identification and inference in discrete choice models with imperfect information

In this paper we study identification and inference of preference parameters in a single-agent, static, discrete choice model where the decision maker may face attentional limits precluding her to exhaustively process information about the payoffs of the available alternatives. By leveraging on the notion of one-player Bayesian Correlated Equilibrium in Bergemann and Morris (2016), we provide a tractable characterisation of the sharp identified set and discuss inference under minimal assumptions on the amount of information processed by the decision maker and under no assumptions on the rule with which the decision maker resolves ties. Simulations reveal that the obtained bounds on the preference parameters can be tight in several settings of empirical interest

Partial identification in matching models for the marriage market

We consider the one-to-one matching models with transfers of Choo and Siow (2006) and Galichon and Salanié (2015). When the analyst has data on one large market only, we study identification of the systematic components of the agents’ preferences without imposing parametric restrictions on the probability distribution of the latent variables. Specifically, we provide a tractable characterisation of the region of parameter values that exhausts all the implications of the model and data (the sharp identified set), under various classes of nonparametric distributional assumptions on the unobserved terms. We discuss a way to conduct inference on the sharp identified set and conclude with Monte Carlo simulations

An Econometric Model of Network Formation with an Application to Board Interlocks between Firms

We study identification of the players’ preferences in a network formation game featuring complete information, nonreciprocal links, and a spillover effect. We decompose the network formation game into local games such that the network formation game is in equilibrium if and only if each local game is in equilibrium. This decomposition helps us prove equilibrium existence, reduce the number of moment inequalities characterising the identified set, and simplify the calculation of the integrals entering those moment inequalities. The developed methodology is used to investigate Italian firms’ incentives for having their executive directors sitting on competitors’ boards