Benjamin Golub
· Professor of Economics and (by courtesy) Computer ScienceNorthwestern University · Computer Science
Active 1988–2025
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About
Benjamin Golub is a professor in the Department of Economics at Northwestern University. He earned his PhD from Stanford Graduate School of Business in 2012. His research focuses on social and economic networks, with particular emphasis on models of social learning, local public goods, peer effects, and the formation of social capital. A key aspect of his work involves capturing features of networks through theory-based summary statistics that are useful in empirical studies and policy analyses.
Research topics
- Computer Science
- Computer Security
- Political Science
- Artificial Intelligence
- Economics
- Psychology
- Microeconomics
Selected publications
2025-07-02 · 17 citations
preprintOpen accessSenior authorWe study network games in which players choose partners and an effort level. There is a finite set of players N, each choosing an action si; from an ordered set Si and forming links G, with payoffs ui(G, s). We study two stability concepts: an outcome (G, s) is strictly pairwise stable if (i) actions s are a Nash equilibrium for fixed G; (ii) no player wishes to unilaterally sever an existing link; and (iii) no pair of unlinked players both weakly desire to form a link. The network is strictly p…
Learning from Neighbours about a Changing State
The Review of Economic Studies · 2022-11-15 · 16 citations
articleAbstract Agents learn about a changing state using private signals and their neighbours’ past estimates of the state. We present a model in which Bayesian agents in equilibrium use neighbours’ estimates simply by taking weighted sums with time-invariant weights. The dynamics thus parallel those of the tractable DeGroot model of learning in networks, but arise as an equilibrium outcome rather than a behavioural assumption. We examine whether information aggregation is nearly optimal as neighbourh…
When Less Is More: Experimental Evidence on Information Delivery During India’s Demonetisation
The Review of Economic Studies · 2023-07-07 · 14 citations
articleOpen accessSenior authorAbstract In disseminating information, policymakers face a choice between broadcasting to everyone and informing a small number of “seeds” who then spread the message. While broadcasting maximises the initial reach of messages, we offer theoretical and experimental evidence that it need not be the best strategy. In a field experiment during the 2016 Indian demonetisation, we delivered policy information, varying three dimensions of the delivery method at the village level: initial reach (broadca…
On the difficulty of characterizing network formation with endogenous behavior
Mathematical Social Sciences · 2023-11-15 · 2 citations
article1st authorSSRN Electronic Journal · 2023-01-01 · 2 citations
articleOpen access
Frequent coauthors
- 26 shared
Matthew O. Jackson
- 26 shared
Andrea Galeotti
- 24 shared
Sanjeev Goyal
- 18 shared
Matthew Elliott
University of Cambridge
- 12 shared
Krishna Dasaratha
Boston University
- 11 shared
Arun G. Chandrasekhar
National Bureau of Economic Research
- 9 shared
Matt V. Leduc
Groupement de Recherche en Économie Quantitative d’Aix-Marseille
- 8 shared
Nir Hak
Uber AI (United States)
Education
- 1995
Ph.D., Economics
University of California, Berkeley
- 1991
M.A., Economics
University of California, Berkeley
- 1988
B.A., Economics
University of California, Berkeley
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