The Editors of The Econometrics Journal decided that the 2017 Denis Sargan Econometrics Prize will be shared equally between Vincent Boucher (Université Laval) and Ismael Mourifié (University of Toronto) for their article “My friend far, far away: a random field approach to exponential random graph models” in the October 2017 issue of The Econometrics Journal.
Vincent and Ismael’s Prize winning article studies the econometrics of strategic network formation in large populations. It focuses on measuring the parameters of individual utility functions from data on a single, large social network that is modeled as an exponential random graph. Its main contribution is to provide a logit based estimation method that is both easy to implement and fast, for the case in which payoffs from link formation decay with differences or distance between individuals. It demonstrates this method’s applicability using the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health (Add Health).
Andrew Chesher will present the Prize to Vincent and Ismael at the start of James Heckman’s Sargan Lecture at the Society’s 2019 Annual Conference.
