Topics in Group Formation, Inequality and Conflict

这项研究项目研究了群体和联盟形成的各个方面；这些过程对经济效率、社会两极分化和群体间冲突的影响。该研究项目有三个主要组成部分。首先，将对群和网络形成的几个方面进行研究。在理论层面上，目标是分析在存在有远见的经济代理人的情况下的群体形成。这些主题已经是首席研究员过去研究的主要焦点，但这里的新焦点是网络形成，这是一个包含许多联盟形成标准理论的通用概念。此外，集团和网络结构将在主要的特殊情况下进行调查，例如与保险、信息或技术传播有关的情况。第二部分-作为第一部分的补充-将介绍和研究经济、宗教或种族群体之间的“社会两极分化”概念。无论是从理论上还是从经验上讲，社会两极分化都与社会冲突的发生密切相关。这一主张将通过对两极分化及其相关因素的实证研究，以及通过社会冲突的行为模型进行评估，在这些模型中，特征的两极分化起着明确的作用。最后，该项目将把其中一些想法应用到印度过去20年不断升级的社区暴力中。将研究印度不同宗教和种姓群体的经济和人口特征，以及这些特征与地区一级爆发的宗教或种族暴力有关的特征。此外，几个数据来源将被结合起来，以创建一个独特的数据集，用于研究印度上下文中的冲突和分配。群体形成是经济理论、政治经济学和社会学问题的核心。这个项目描述了-在其他方面-一种思考联盟形成的方法。这种方法可能会对博弈论模型、产业组织和政治经济学产生影响。从更实用的角度来看，两极分化是一个核心感兴趣的话题，无论是研究不平等的理论家，还是寻求低增长、暴力犯罪和内战等结果相关性的实践者都是如此。最后，对印度教-穆斯林和种姓冲突的研究可能是第一个将经济和人口变量与种族或宗教冲突联系起来的研究。这种分析不仅对印度国内的种族冲突有影响，而且对世界其他地区的冲突也有影响。

This research project studies various aspects of group and coalition formation; the implications of such processes for economic efficiency, social polarization, and inter group conflict. The research project has three main components. First, several facets of group and network formation will be studied. At a theoretical level, the objective is to analyze group formation in the presence of farsighted economic agents. These topics have already been a major focus of past research by the principal investigator, but the new focus here is on network formation, a versatile concept that encompasses many standard theories of coalition formation. In addition, group and network structure will be investigated in leading special cases, such as those pertaining to insurance, information, or technology diffusion. Second --- and complementary to the first part --- the notion of ``social polarization" across economic, religious, or ethic groupings will be introduced and studied. It will be argued, both theoretically and empirically, that social polarization is closely connected with the incidence of social conflict. This claim will be evaluated by an empirical study of polarization and its correlates, as well as through behavioral models of social conflict in which the polarization of characteristics plays an explicit role. Finally, the project will apply some of these ideas to the escalating communitarian violence in India over the past two decades. The economic and demographic characteristics of different religious and caste groups in India will be studied, and such characteristics connected with the outbreak of religious or ethnic violence at the district level. In addition, several data sources will be combined to create a unique dataset for studying conflict and distribution in the Indian context.Group formation is central to questions in economic theory, political economy, and sociology. This project describes --- among other things --- a methodology for thinking about coalition formation. This approach is likely to have implications for game-theoretic models, industrial organization, and political economy. From a more applied viewpoint, polarization is a topic of central interest, both to theorists working on inequality, as well as to practitioners seeking correlates of outcomes such as low growth, violent crime, and civil wars. Finally, the study of Hindu-Muslim and caste conflict is possibly the first that links economic and demographic variables to ethnic or religious conflict. This sort of analysis has implications not just for ethnic conflict within India but for conflicts in other parts of the world.