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Faculty of Economics

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Bhattacharjee, A. and Holly, S.

Understanding Interactions in Social Networks and Committees

CWPE1003

Abstract: While much of the literature on cross section dependence has focused mainly on estimation of the regression coefficients in the underlying model, estimation and inferences on the magnitude and strength of spill-overs and interactions has been largely ignored. At the same time, such inferences are important in many applications, not least because they have structural interpretations and provide useful interpretation and structural explanation for the strength of any interactions. In this paper we propose GMM methods designed to uncover underlying (hidden) interactions in social networks and committees. Special attention is paid to the interval censored regression model. Our methods are applied to a study of committee decision making within the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee.

Keywords: Committee decision making, Social networks, Cross section and spatial interaction, Generalised method of moments, Censored regression model, Expectation-Maximisation Algorithm, Monetary policy, Interest rates

JEL Codes: D71 D85 E43 E52 C31 C34

Author links: Sean Holly  

PDF: https://www.econ.cam.ac.uk/research-files/repec/cam/pdf/cwpe1003.pdf

Open Access Link: https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.1137