Bias and High-Dimensional Adjustment in Observational Studies of Peer Effects
同伴效应观察性研究中的偏差与高维调整
Peer effects, in which an individual’s behavior is affected by peers’ behavior, are posited by multiple theories in the social sciences. Randomized field experiments that identify peer effects, however, are often expensive or infeasible, so many studies of peer effects use observational data, which is expected to suffer from confounding. Here we show, in the context of information and media diffusion, that high-dimensional adjustment of a nonexperimental control group (660…