On the Estimation of Peer Effects for Sampled Networks

Abstract: This paper deals with the estimation of exogeneous peer effects for partially observed networks under the new inferential paradigm of design identification, which characterizes the missing data challenge arising with sampled networks with the central idea that two full data versions which are topologically compatible with the observed data may give rise to two different probability distributions. We show that peer effects cannot be identified by design when network links between sampled and unsampled units are not observed. Under realistic modeling conditions, and under the assumption that sampled units report on the size of their network of contacts, the asymptotic bias arising from estimating peer effects with incomplete network data is characterized, and a bias-corrected estimator is proposed. The finite sample performance of our methodology is investigated via simulations.