Matching and Network Effects

This paper examines the existence and magnitude of network e¤ects in the matching of workteams.We study the formation of co-author relations among economists over a thirty year period.Our principal …nding is that a collaboration emerges faster among two authors if they are closer in the social network of economists.This proximity e¤ect on collaboration is strong and robust but only a¤ects initial collaboration.It has no positive in ‡uence on subsequent co-authorship.We also provide some evidence that matching depends on experience, junior authors being more likely to collaborate with senior authors.