Matthew O. Jackson

About

Matthew O. Jackson is the William D. Eberle Professor of Economics at Stanford University and an external faculty member of the Santa Fe Institute. He received his BA from Princeton University in 1984 and his PhD from Stanford in 1988. His research interests include game theory, microeconomic theory, and the study of social and economic networks, on which he has published numerous articles and authored the books 'The Human Network' and 'Social and Economic Networks'. Jackson has made significant contributions to understanding how social relations shape economic outcomes and has been recognized with several honors, including membership in the National Academy of Sciences, fellowships in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Econometric Society, the Game Theory Society, and the Economic Theory Fellow. His accolades also include a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Social Choice and Welfare Prize, the von Neumann Award from Rajk Laszlo College, an honorary doctorate from Aix-Marseille University, and the B.E.Press Arrow Prize for Senior Economists. He has served as co-editor of prominent journals such as Games and Economic Behavior, the Review of Economic Design, and Econometrica.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Sociology
• Social psychology
• Demographic economics
• Demography
• Social Science
• Psychology
• Economics
• Economic growth

Selected publications

• Social capital I: measurement and associations with economic mobility

  Nature · 2022 · 573 citations

  . To support further research and policy interventions, we publicly release privacy-protected statistics on social capital by ZIP code at https://www.socialcapital.org .

  DOI

• Social capital II: determinants of economic connectedness

  Nature · 2022 · 228 citations

  . We show that about half of the social disconnection across socioeconomic lines-measured as the difference in the share of high-socioeconomic status (SES) friends between people with low and high SES-is explained by differences in exposure to people with high SES in groups such as schools and religious organizations. The other half is explained by friending bias-the tendency for people with low SES to befriend people with high SES at lower rates even conditional on exposure. Friending bias is s…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• A Network Formation Model Based on Subgraphs

  The Review of Economic Studies · 2025-02-25 · 20 citations

  articleSenior author

  Abstract We develop a new class of random graph models for the statistical estimation of network formation—subgraph generated models (SUGMs). Various subgraphs—e.g. links, triangles, cliques, stars—are generated and their union results in a network. We show that SUGMs are identified and establish the consistency and asymptotic distribution of parameter estimators in empirically relevant cases. We show that a simple four-parameter SUGM matches basic patterns in empirical networks more closely tha…

  PublisherDOI

• Differences in perceived social connection help explain SES-based gaps in well-being

  Social Networks · 2025-03-23 · 3 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Bridging the empathy perception gap fosters social connection

  Nature Human Behaviour · 2025-10-16 · 3 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• Collaborative Research: Multiplexing: Theories and Tests of Interactions Between Types of Relationships

  NSF · $278k · 2016–2020

• Collaborative Research: Social Networks and Microfinance

  NSF · $73k · 2012–2015

• Studies of Social Structure and Economic Behavior

  NSF · $303k · 2010–2014

Frequent coauthors

• Arun G. Chandrasekhar

  National Bureau of Economic Research

  83 shared

• Leeat Yariv

  Centre for Economic Policy Research

  50 shared

• Philippe Aghion

  Collège de France

  43 shared

• Abhijit Banerjee

  40 shared

• Daron Acemoğlu

  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  39 shared

• Esther Duflo

  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  37 shared

• Yves Zénou

  Monash University

  34 shared

• Benjamin Golub

  26 shared

Education

• B.A.

  Princeton University

  1984

• Ph.D.

  Stanford University

  1988

Awards & honors

• Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
• Fellow of the Econometric Society
• Game Theory Society Fellow
• Economic Theory Fellow
• Guggenheim Fellowship

Similar researchers at Stanford University

• Guido W Imbensh-109
• Nicholas Bloomh-106
• Patrick Kehoeh-93