[go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/13579.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Social Reinforcement: Cascades, Entrapment and Tipping

Author

Listed:
  • Geoffrey Heal
  • Howard Kunreuther
Abstract
There are many social situations in which the actions of different agents reinforce each other. These include network effects and the threshold models used by sociologists (Granovetter, Watts) as well as Leibenstein's "bandwagon effects." We model such situations as a game with increasing differences, and show that tipping of equilibria as discussed by Schelling, cascading and Dixit's results on clubs with entrapment are natural consequences of this mutual reinforcement. If there are several equilibria, one of which Pareto dominates, then we show that the inefficient equilibria can be tipped to the efficient one, a result of interest in the context of coordination problems.

Suggested Citation

  • Geoffrey Heal & Howard Kunreuther, 2007. "Social Reinforcement: Cascades, Entrapment and Tipping," NBER Working Papers 13579, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13579
    Note: EEE PE
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w13579.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Arthur, W Brian, 1989. "Competing Technologies, Increasing Returns, and Lock-In by Historical Events," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 99(394), pages 116-131, March.
    2. Brock, W.A. & Durlauf, S.N., 1995. "Discrete Choice with Social Interactions I: Theory," Working papers 9521, Wisconsin Madison - Social Systems.
    3. Charles F. Manski, 2000. "Economic Analysis of Social Interactions," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 14(3), pages 115-136, Summer.
    4. Easterly William, 2009. "Empirics of Strategic Interdependence: The Case of the Racial Tipping Point," The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, De Gruyter, vol. 9(1), pages 1-35, June.
    5. Crawford, Vincent P & Haller, Hans, 1990. "Learning How to Cooperate: Optimal Play in Repeated Coordination Games," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 58(3), pages 571-595, May.
    6. Nicholas Economides, 1997. "The Economics of Networks," Brazilian Electronic Journal of Economics, Department of Economics, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, vol. 1(0), December.
    7. De Long, J Bradford, et al, 1990. "Positive Feedback Investment Strategies and Destabilizing Rational Speculation," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 45(2), pages 379-395, June.
    8. Kunreuther, Howard & Heal, Geoffrey, 2003. "Interdependent Security," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 26(2-3), pages 231-249, March-May.
    9. David Card & Alexandre Mas & Jesse Rothstein, 2008. "Tipping and the Dynamics of Segregation," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 123(1), pages 177-218.
    10. H. Leibenstein, 1950. "Bandwagon, Snob, and Veblen Effects in the Theory of Consumers' Demand," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 64(2), pages 183-207.
    11. Geoffrey Heal & Howard Kunreuther, 2005. "IDS Models of Airline Security," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 49(2), pages 201-217, April.
    12. Harrison Hong & Jeffrey D. Kubik & Jeremy C. Stein, 2001. "Social Interaction and Stock-Market Participation," NBER Working Papers 8358, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Bulow, Jeremy I & Geanakoplos, John D & Klemperer, Paul D, 1985. "Multimarket Oligopoly: Strategic Substitutes and Complements," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 93(3), pages 488-511, June.
    14. H. Peyton Young, 1996. "The Economics of Convention," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 10(2), pages 105-122, Spring.
    15. Barberis, Nicholas & Shleifer, Andrei, 2003. "Style investing," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(2), pages 161-199, May.
    16. Schelling, Thomas C, 1969. "Models of Segregation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 59(2), pages 488-493, May.
    17. Milgrom, Paul & Roberts, John, 1990. "Rationalizability, Learning, and Equilibrium in Games with Strategic Complementarities," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 58(6), pages 1255-1277, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Natasha Chichilnisky-Heal & Geoffrey Heal, 2015. "Host-MNC Relations in Resource-Rich Countries," NBER Working Papers 21712, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Alessandro Tavoni & Simon Levin, 2014. "Managing the climate commons at the nexus of ecology, behaviour and economics," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 4(12), pages 1057-1063, December.
    3. Zhihan Cui & Geoffrey Heal & Howard Kunreuther & Lu Liu, 2021. "The Political Economy of Responses to COVID-19 in the U.S.A," NBER Working Papers 28578, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Trevor Kollmann & Simone Marsiglio & Sandy Suardi & Marco Tolotti, 2021. "Social interactions, residential segregation and the dynamics of tipping," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 31(4), pages 1355-1388, September.
    5. Geoffrey Heal & Howard Kunreuther, 2017. "An alternative framework for negotiating climate policies," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 144(1), pages 29-39, September.
    6. Richter, Andries & van Soest, Daan & Grasman, Johan, 2013. "Contagious cooperation, temptation, and ecosystem collapse," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 66(1), pages 141-158.
    7. Cohen, Mark A. & Vandenbergh, Michael P., 2012. "The potential role of carbon labeling in a green economy," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(S1), pages 53-63.
    8. Goldbaum David, 2019. "Conformity and Influence," The B.E. Journal of Theoretical Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 19(1), pages 1-29, January.
    9. Fergus Green, 2015. "Nationally Self-Interested Climate Change Mitigation: A Unified Conceptual Framework," GRI Working Papers 199, Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment.
    10. Zhihan Cui & Geoffrey Heal & Howard Kunreuther, 2020. "Covid-19, Shelter-In Place Strategies and Tipping," NBER Working Papers 27124, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Sungmin Kang & Younkue Na, 2022. "A Study on Conformity Appeal Attributes and Social Contagion of Beauty-Focused One-Person Media in Sustainable E-Commerce," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-16, May.
    12. Geoffrey Heal & Howard Kunreuther, 2011. "Tipping Climate Negotiations," NBER Working Papers 16954, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Shafran, Aric P. & Lepore, Jason J., 2011. "Subsidization to induce tipping," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 110(1), pages 32-35, January.
    14. Robert Hahn & Robert Ritz, 2014. "Optimal Altruism in Public Good Provision," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 1403, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    15. Pakhtigian, Emily L. & Dickinson, Katherine L. & Orgill-Meyer, Jennifer & Pattanayak, Subhrendu K., 2022. "Sustaining latrine use: Peers, policies, and sanitation behaviors," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 200(C), pages 223-242.
    16. Heggedal, Tom-Reiel & Helland, Leif, 2014. "Platform selection in the lab," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 168-177.
    17. Diane Coyle, 2016. "The Political Economy of National Statistics," Economics Discussion Paper Series 1603, Economics, The University of Manchester.
    18. Stephan Kroll & Aric P. Shafran, 2018. "Spatial externalities and risk in interdependent security games," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 56(3), pages 237-257, June.
    19. Zimmerman, Brianne R. & Collins, Alan R. & Lacombe, Don, 2017. "Analyzing the Spatial Distribution of NRCS Conservation Programs in West Virginia," 2017 Annual Meeting, July 30-August 1, Chicago, Illinois 258378, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    20. Van Parys, Jessica & Ash, Elliott, 2018. "Sequential decision-making with group identity," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 1-18.
    21. AJ Bostian & David Goldbaum, 2016. "Emergent Coordination among Competitors," Working Paper Series 36, Economics Discipline Group, UTS Business School, University of Technology, Sydney.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Geoffrey Heal & Howard Kunreuther, 2006. "Supermodularity and Tipping," NBER Working Papers 12281, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Geoffrey Heal & Howard Kunreuther, 2007. "Modeling Interdependent Risks," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(3), pages 621-634, June.
    3. Belleflamme,Paul & Peitz,Martin, 2015. "Industrial Organization," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107687899.
    4. Steven N. Durlauf, 1996. "Statistical Mechanics Approaches to Socioeconomic Behavior," NBER Technical Working Papers 0203, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Florent Dubois & Christophe Muller, 2017. "Segregation and the Perception of the Minority," Working Papers halshs-01520308, HAL.
    6. Conlisk, John & Gong, Jyh-Chyi & Tong, Ching H., 2000. "Imitation and the dynamics of norms," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 40(2), pages 197-213, September.
    7. Lim, Wooyoung & Neary, Philip R., 2016. "An experimental investigation of stochastic adjustment dynamics," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 208-219.
    8. John S. Earle & Klara Sabirianova Peter, 2006. "Complementarity and Custom in Contract Violation," Upjohn Working Papers 06-129, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
    9. Denis Phan, 2006. "Discrete Choices under Social Influence:Generic Properties," Post-Print halshs-00105857, HAL.
    10. Campbell, John Y. & Ramadorai, Tarun & Schwartz, Allie, 2009. "Caught on tape: Institutional trading, stock returns, and earnings announcements," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(1), pages 66-91, April.
    11. Caetano, Gregorio & Maheshri, Vikram, 2017. "School segregation and the identification of tipping behavior," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 115-135.
    12. David Card, 2007. "How Immigration Affects U.S. Cities," RF Berlin - CReAM Discussion Paper Series 0711, Rockwool Foundation Berlin (RF Berlin) - Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM).
    13. Victoria Gregory & Julian Kozlowski & Hannah Rubinton, 2022. "The Impact of Racial Segregation on College Attainment in Spatial Equilibrium," Working Papers 2022-036, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, revised 27 Nov 2024.
    14. Earle, John S. & Peter, Klara Sabirianova, 2000. "Equilibrium Wage Arrears: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis of Institutional Lock-In," IZA Discussion Papers 196, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    15. A. Bassanini & G. Dosi, 1998. "Competing Technologies, International Diffusion and the Rate of Convergence to a Stable Market Structure," Working Papers ir98012, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis.
    16. John S. Earle & Klara Z. Sabirianova, 2000. "Equilibrium Wage Arrears: Institutional Lock-In of Contractual Failure in Russia," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series 321, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.
    17. Ioannides, Yannis M., 2015. "Neighborhoods to nations via social interactions," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 5-15.
    18. Malone, Thom, 2020. "There goes the neighborhood does tipping exist amongst income groups?," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(C).
    19. Gautier, Pieter & van Vuuren, Aico & Siegmann, Arjen, 2007. "The Effect of the Theo van Gogh Murder on House Prices in Amsterdam," CEPR Discussion Papers 6175, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    20. Maarten C.W. Janssen, 1997. "Focal Points," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 97-091/1, Tinbergen Institute.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D20 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - General
    • D80 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - General
    • D85 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Network Formation
    • Q59 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Other

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13579. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.