Powre: Collaborative Research: Developing a Theory of Buyer-Seller Networks

该项目建立了一种新的经济交换模式：买卖双方的网络，而不是市场。 它以经验主义为前提，即买卖双方必须有一种关系，一种交换商品的“联系”。 网络买家和卖家以及连接他们的链接模式是一个共同的交换环境。 该项目研究了为什么代理人可能形成网络，并开发了一种方法来研究网络结构。 开发的模型捕捉了各种行业的特点，包括工程和电子分包和服装。 这一研究有望推进网络和交换制度的经济理论。 该项目中提出的论点可用于研究任何双边环境，包括监督层级和国际贸易集团。 该理论还允许将网络与其他交换机构进行比较，如垂直整合和匿名市场。 调查员是初级教师在她的职业生涯的关键阶段，这个项目涉及一个大的，新的研究领域使用新技术。 在职业生涯的早期进行这种规模的投资是有一定风险的，因为只有在若干年后才能实现全部回报。 然而，该项目在新理论、成果和出版物方面的潜力是相当大的。 现在有机会投入时间的研究是至关重要的研究人员的任期情况和未来的科学研究。

This project builds a new model of economic exchange: networks, rather than markets, of buyers and sellers. It begins with the empirically motivated premise that a buyer and a seller must have a relationship, a `link` to exchange goods. Networks-buyers and sellers and a pattern of links that connect them-are a common exchange environment. The project examines why agents may form networks and develops a methodology to study network structures. The model developed captures the characteristics of a variety of industries, including engineering and electronics subcontracting and apparel. This research promises to advance the economic theory of networks and exchange institutions. The arguments developed in the project can be used to study any bipartite setting including supervisory hierarchies and international trading blocs. The theory will also allow a comparison of networks to alternative exchange institutions such as vertical integration and anonymous markets. The investigator is junior faculty in a critical stage in her career and this project involves a large, new area of research using new techniques. To make an investment of this size early in a career involves some risk, since the full payoff is realized only after a number of years. The potential of the project, however, in terms of new theory, results, and publications is quite large. The opportunity to devote time now to the research is pivotal for the investigator's tenure case and future in scientific research.