Social Interactions Models with Latent Structures

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Lin, Zhongjian, Shi, Zhentao, Zheng, Yapeng
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Lin, Zhongjian
Shi, Zhentao
Zheng, Yapeng
author_facet Lin, Zhongjian
Shi, Zhentao
Zheng, Yapeng
contents This paper studies estimation and inference of heterogeneous peer effects featuring group fixed effects and slope heterogeneity under latent structure. We adapt the Classifier-Lasso algorithm to consistently discover latent structures and determine the number of clusters. To solve the incidental parameter problem in the binary choice model with social interactions, we propose a parametric bootstrap method to debias and establish its asymptotic validity. Monte Carlo simulations confirm strong finite sample performance of our methods. In an application to students' risky behaviors, the algorithm detects two latent clusters and finds that peer effects are significant within one of the clusters, demonstrating the practical applicability in uncovering heterogeneous social interactions.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2602_06435
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Social Interactions Models with Latent Structures
Lin, Zhongjian
Shi, Zhentao
Zheng, Yapeng
Methodology
Econometrics
This paper studies estimation and inference of heterogeneous peer effects featuring group fixed effects and slope heterogeneity under latent structure. We adapt the Classifier-Lasso algorithm to consistently discover latent structures and determine the number of clusters. To solve the incidental parameter problem in the binary choice model with social interactions, we propose a parametric bootstrap method to debias and establish its asymptotic validity. Monte Carlo simulations confirm strong finite sample performance of our methods. In an application to students' risky behaviors, the algorithm detects two latent clusters and finds that peer effects are significant within one of the clusters, demonstrating the practical applicability in uncovering heterogeneous social interactions.
title Social Interactions Models with Latent Structures
topic Methodology
Econometrics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.06435