American Economic Journal:
Microeconomics
ISSN 1945-7669 (Print) | ISSN 1945-7685 (Online)
Degree-Weighted Social Learning
American Economic Journal: Microeconomics
(pp. 150–80)
Abstract
We study social learning in which agents weight neighbors' opinions differently based on their degrees, capturing situations in which agents place more trust in well-connected individuals or, conversely, discount their influence. We derive asymptotic properties of learning outcomes in large stochastic networks and analyze how the weighting rule affects societal wisdom and convergence speed. We find that assigning greater weight to higher-degree neighbors harms wisdom but has a non-monotonic effect on convergence speed, depending on the diversity of views within high- and low-degree groups, highlighting a potential trade-off between convergence speed and wisdom.Citation
Cheng, Chen, Xiao Han, Xin Tong, Yusheng Wu, and Yiqing Xing. 2026. "Degree-Weighted Social Learning." American Economic Journal: Microeconomics 18 (4): 150–80. DOI: 10.1257/mic.20240077Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- D83 Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
- D85 Network Formation and Analysis: Theory
- Z13 Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification