Fortunately, I went to two conferences in the past month, one specialized academic conference on Complex Network held by University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, and the second one was organized by my dear UseR friends and I, which was the 4th China-R Conference (Shanghai) in East China Normal University.
It was really my honor to participate in these two conferences and deliver presentations to the audience. My talk was focused on experiments in social networks, and some consequent analysis in R. As the conferences were in China, I talked in Chinese throughout. Social network is a hot topic nowadays, but experimental methods are still at the beginning stage. With social learning models, we found out a good way to test the network effects with randomized experiments.
It was also my great pleasure to meet famous scholars worldwide. In the complex network conference, a lot people from physics and computer science brought my with fresh knowledge and inspirations. In the R conference, we invited so many experienced useR and exchanged our experience of using R. It is always good to feel that many people are enjoying the convenience of R and are happy to play with data in numerous fields.
At last, here are the slides I used to assist my presentation. Sorry but they are in Chinese…
Tomorrow my dear graduation ceremony is going to take place. Yeah, after 10 months works, finally it reaches the end. At the end, it is hard to say that I am exciting – instead, I want to look back at the past months rather than imagine the future at this moment.
In terms of teachers, as the timeline goes, Lugosi, Ghazala, Thijs/Gino, Massimo/ Larbi, Davide…and more. I have enjoyed so many great courses despite some disappointing ones. Lugosi reconstructed my confidence in math – at least I can survive in real analysis! Thijs taught me more beyond his course materials – how to think, how to analyze real world problems, how to develop research ideas (hopefully I was not so annoying at that time…) and how to be patient. Interestingly, after macro, I picked micro II instead. You can say it was a turn, but in fact my ultimate goal of studying economics, ideally of course, is to link micro and macro more close to each other Massimo Motta was so amazing – clear about the course materials and patient with my random emails… I owe him a lot of thanks. Davide Cantoni, well, do I still need to mention his name any more on this blog? Economic history will stay as one of my best memory ever. Oh how can I forget development econ? I have learned so much from Ghazala~
Regarding papers, this year I have worked with several great Barcelona GSE colleagues to develop research ideas and formalize the frameworks. One on romantic relationship formation (partner matching) with Hrvoje Stojic who was so good at psychology and micro/behavior econ; one on social network and its applications to public health issues with Mahesh Karra, who served as an expert from the health perspective; last one by myself on economic history which talks about the financial innovation in historical China…plus another one oriented by a friend from another continent… The first half of this year was fully filled by papers and research inspirations. Although we could not finish each of them comprehensively and they look more like research proposals, the basic ideas show how much we have thought, exchanged ideas and challenged ourselves. In addition to the knowledge gained from classes and professors, the experience of cooperating with other talent people has also brought invaluable growth to me.
I am not sure what I am going to do in the second half of this year. This year started with a dismal situation, and sometimes it was pretty difficult for me to stand up after pains, finally time recovers everything. I will make a choice soon once I am back in China and meet necessary people to decide my future’s directions. Things are going as always, and after the journey only beautiful moments will stay as precious memories. After experienced the difficulty of life, I have realized how important it is to look ahead to the future. Growth is always an exciting process.
Yesterday I went to one conference, which may be the last one for me in UPF:
CREI-CEPR Conference on Institutions and International Capital Flows
As the usual CREI-CEPR style, it was pretty macro. I went for the first two in the first day:
Financial Regulation, Financial Globalization and the Synchronization of Economic Activity
and
The Flight Home Effect: Evidence from the Syndicated Loan Market During Financial Crises
Macro, finance and econometrics… this combination defines my feeling – could not really understand many things. Yes, in some sense these topics are interesting, and financial crisis is worth paying attention to, but to what extend are those researches replicable…
Oh, one point I should mention here. The second one mentioned the “flight home effect”, which was a new term to me. As operators of modern financial system, and one industry, the banks always attract special focus…It was nice to know their operations and some associated phenomena
Woooo! We finally submitted our master project at the beginning of today! Such a long paper. I cannot believe that we actually complete it within such a short time period. Congratulations to ourselves! Haha!
Cover:
First and foremost, here is the special-designed cover for this project. Well, it is not so good (perhaps economics has killed most of my design cells in my brain, sigh), but uniquely related to our project.
The graph is not any random one, but the one generated for this master thesis! On the back side of the cover there is an explanation: And, yes, let’s enlarge part of it and have a look at the links!
Yes, the illustrations are both based on real social networks. The front one is a social network graph constructed from a real SMS network; the back one reflects the co-authorships among economists affiliated to BGSE/UPF. They look like blooming flowers, right? How wonderful and beautiful information is!
Download:
The simulation part of this paper with several interesting graphs is available to be downloaded here: Master Project -_simulations.pdf
Summary:
After all, I would like to summarize and introduce our project briefly.
In one sentence, it is a nice combination of social network theories and public health issues (HIV/AIDS), and we construct the analysis both from the theoretical (network learning) and empirical (network estimation) angles.
Title: Expectations and the Social Network: Modeling Health Risk Perception among U.S. Adolescents
Author: Liyun Chen and Mahesh Karra (Barcelona Graduate School of Economics and Universitat Pompeu Fabra)
Abstract:
This study aims to examine the determinants of HIV/AIDS risk perceptions and resultant sexual behavior among adolescents. We investigate the learning and decision-making process through which teenagers may update their risk beliefs, and argue that social interactions play an important role in understanding both phenomena. In particular, we hypothesize that social networks and peer risk perception of HIV/AIDS directly impact respondent risk perception and, consequently, risk behavior. We propose a theoretical framework in order to identify the mechanisms through which individual risk perceptions may respond to peer attitudes and social beliefs. Using friendship network data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), we design an empirical strategy and test these channels. We conclude that many determinants of risk behavior are unobserved and may simultaneously affect both perceptions of risk and the size, composition, and selection of individuals’ social networks, particularly in the case of HIV/AIDS risk among teenagers. Social networks may have significant and substantial effects on adolescents’ AIDS risk perceptions; thus, in order to fully understand the dynamics and diffusion of behavioral change in response to AIDS, it is essential to incorporate the necessary network effects. Any network interactions are likely to have a substantial impact on the course of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and the magnitude of its consequences, particularly among the youth; these effects should consequently be taken into consideration when devising effective, targeted policy interventions.
Moreover, this time my co-author is pretty ambitious, and we are expecting these following policy implications:
Although our approach may show some promise in establishing the role of social network analysis in sexual health policy and advocacy among the youth, there are still many operational and methodological barriers which may confound any potential health intervention’s true network effect. Nevertheless, any findings are of central importance for understanding the spread of HIV/AIDS because they reinforce that social interactions constitute important determinants of how adolescents and youth communities develop strategies for coping with the disease. In particular, this study hopes to show that social networks exert significant influences on risk perceptions and the probability of adolescent communication about HIV/AIDS risks, and that these effects are in addition to any programmatic interventions that disseminate knowledge about the disease, provide access to sexual health services, and advocate changes in sexual behaviors. Moreover, we see that social networks are also likely to amplify program efforts aimed at increasing teenagers’ awareness of HIV/AIDS and their assessments of
their own risks. Any network interactions are likely to have a substantial impact on the course of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and themagnitude of its consequences, particularly for the youth; these effects must therefore be taken into consideration when devising effective, targeted interventions.
Overall, the cover looks like…a book? Haha. Otherwise it won’t have a cover
Massimo Motta was so amazing – clear about the course materials and patient with my random emails… I owe him a lot of thanks. Davide Cantoni, well, do I still need to mention his name any more on this blog? Economic history will stay as one of my best memory ever. Oh how can I forget development econ? I have learned so much from Ghazala~
