Risk Pooling, Risk Preferences, and Social Networks

2012 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 134-167 ◽  
Author(s):  
Orazio Attanasio ◽  
Abigail Barr ◽  
Juan Camilo Cardenas ◽  
Garance Genicot ◽  
Costas Meghir

Using data from an experiment conducted in 70 Colombian communities, we investigate who pools risk with whom when trust is crucial for enforcing risk pooling arrangements. We explore the roles played by risk attitudes and social networks. Both empirically and theoretically, we find that close friends and relatives group assortatively on risk attitudes and are more likely to join the same risk pooling group, while unfamiliar participants group less and rarely assort. These findings indicate that where there are advantages to grouping assortatively on risk attitudes those advantages may be inaccessible when trust is absent or low. (JEL C93, O12, O18, Z13)

Agriculture ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 691
Author(s):  
Omotuyole Isiaka Ambali ◽  
Francisco Jose Areal ◽  
Nikolaos Georgantzis

This study analyses farmers’ adoption of improved rice technology, taking into account farmers’ risk preferences; the unobserved spatial heterogeneity associated with farmers’ risk preferences; farmers’ household and farm characteristics; farm locations, farmers’ access to information, and their perceptions on the rice improved varieties (i.e., high yield varieties, HYV). The study used data obtained from field experiments and a survey conducted in 2016 in Nigeria. An instrumental-variable probit model was estimated to account for potential endogenous farmers’ risk preference in the adoption decision model. Results show that risk averse (risk avoidant) farmers are less likely to adopt HYV, with the spatial lags of farmers’ risk attitudes found to be a good instrument for spatially unobserved variables (e.g., environmental and climatic factors). We conclude that studies supporting policy action aiming at the diffusion of improved rice varieties need to collect information, if possible, on farmers’ risk attitudes, local environmental and climatic conditions (e.g., climatic, topographic, soil quality, pest incidence) in order to ease the design and evaluation of policy actions on the adoption of improved agricultural technology.


2019 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 237802311987979 ◽  
Author(s):  
George Wood ◽  
Daria Roithmayr ◽  
Andrew V. Papachristos

Conventional explanations of police misconduct generally adopt a microlevel focus on deviant officers or a macrolevel focus on the top-down organization of police departments. Between these levels are social networks of misconduct. This study recreates these networks using data on 16,503 complaints and 15,811 police officers over a six-year period in Chicago. We examine individual-level factors associated with receiving a complaint, the basic properties of these misconduct networks, and factors related to officer co-naming in complaints. We find that the incidence of police misconduct is associated with attributes including race, age, and tenure and that almost half of police officers are connected in misconduct ties in broader networks of misconduct. We also find that certain dyadic factors, especially seniority and race, strongly predict network ties and the incidence of group misconduct. Our results provide actionable information regarding possible ways to leverage the co-complaint network structure to reduce misconduct.


2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S678-S679
Author(s):  
Nancy Mendoza ◽  
Christine Fruhauf

Abstract Grandparents raising grandchildren experience multiple challenges as they take on the unexpected role of caring for their grandchildren, which usually occurs under stressful and stigmatizing conditions. Many of the challenges grandparents experience are well documented in the research. Less attention is given to understanding how a grandparent caregiver’s social network changes when s/he becomes a caregiver and how her/his social network influences resilience. Thus, the purpose of this study was to use social network analysis (SNA) to examine the relation between social networks and resilience in grandparents raising their grandchildren. This was done by conducting face-to-face interviews with twenty grandparents raising grandchildren after they completed a survey measuring social support, social isolation, and resilience. The interview protocol included questions related to participants’ social network, social support, and services. Prior to the interviews, using data from the surveys participants were identified as representing one of four resilience quadrants: resilient, maladaptive, competent, and vulnerable. Qualitative analysis of grandparent’s social networks across groups indicated resilient grandparent caregivers’ networks were structured in a way that provided more opportunities for the inflow of new information and resources. Whereas the proportion of professionals in maladaptive grandparent caregivers’ networks tended to be less than for other networks. This could suggest that for grandparent caregivers, having professionals in one’s network can be beneficial. Findings from the current study provide opportunities for future research such as identifying ways to help grandparent caregivers structure their social networks to promote resilience.


Author(s):  
Sabina B. Gesell ◽  
Kayla de la Haye ◽  
Evan C. Sommer ◽  
Santiago J. Saldana ◽  
Shari L. Barkin ◽  
...  

Using data from one of the first trials to try to leverage social networks as a mechanism for obesity intervention, we examined which social network conditions amplified behavior change. Data were collected as part of a community-based healthy lifestyle intervention in Nashville, USA, between June 2014 and July 2017. Adults randomized to the intervention arm were assigned to a small group of 10 participants that met in person for 12 weekly sessions. Intervention small group social networks were measured three times; sedentary behavior was measured by accelerometry at baseline and 12 months. Multivariate hidden Markov models classified people into distinct social network trajectories over time, based on the structure of the emergent network and where the individual was embedded. A multilevel regression analysis assessed the relationship between network trajectory and sedentary behavior (N = 261). Being a person that connected clusters of intervention participants at any point during the intervention predicted an average reduction of 31.3 min/day of sedentary behavior at 12 months, versus being isolated [95% CI: (−61.4, −1.07), p = 0.04]. Certain social network conditions may make it easier to reduce adult sedentary behavior in group-based interventions. While further research will be necessary to establish causality, the implications for intervention design are discussed.


2013 ◽  
Vol 46 (4) ◽  
pp. 556-559 ◽  
Author(s):  
DEBORAH R. BASSETT ◽  
LONNIE NELSON ◽  
DOROTHY A. RHOADES ◽  
ELIZABETH M. KRANTZ ◽  
ADAM OMIDPANAH

SummaryUsing data from The National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions, the strength of social networks and the association of self-reported health among American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/AN) and non-Hispanic Whites (NHW) were compared. Differences in social network–health relationships between AI/ANs and NHWs were also examined. For both groups, those with fewer network members were more likely to report fair or poor health than those with average or more network members, and persons with the fewest types of relationships had worse self-reported health than those with the average or very diverse types of relationships. Furthermore, small social networks were associated with much worse self-reported health in AI/ANs than in NHWs.


2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (5) ◽  
pp. 140444 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alecia J. Carter ◽  
Alexander E. G. Lee ◽  
Harry H. Marshall ◽  
Miquel Torrents Ticó ◽  
Guy Cowlishaw

Individuals' access to social information can depend on their social network. Homophily—a preference to associate with similar phenotypes—may cause assortment within social networks that could preclude information transfer from individuals who generate information to those who would benefit from acquiring it. Thus, understanding phenotypic assortment may lead to a greater understanding of the factors that could limit the transfer of information between individuals. We tested whether there was assortment in wild baboon ( Papio ursinus ) networks, using data collected from two troops over 6 years for six phenotypic traits—boldness, age, dominance rank, sex and the propensity to generate/exploit information—using two methods for defining a connection between individuals—time spent in proximity and grooming. Our analysis indicated that assortment was more common in grooming than proximity networks. In general, there was homophily for boldness, age, rank and the propensity to both generate and exploit information, but heterophily for sex. However, there was considerable variability both between troops and years. The patterns of homophily we observed for these phenotypes may impede information transfer between them. However, the inconsistency in the strength of assortment between troops and years suggests that the limitations to information flow may be quite variable.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document