Evaluating the Mediation Effect of a Social Network: Model Specification and Application

• In Event: Hilton Roundtable Session 6
  In Roundtable Session: Machine Learning and Data Sciences

Abstract

Abstract: In this study, we propose a mediation model to investigate the potential mediation role of a social network. In the model, the dependence among actors is accounted by a few mutually orthogonal latent dimensions which form a social space. The individuals' positions in such a latent social space directly involve in the intervention process between an independent variable and a dependent variable. To estimate the model, we adopt a Bayesian estimation method. The usefulness of the network mediation model is demonstrated through an empirical application to a friendship network.

Authors

• Haiyan Liu, University of California - Merced

• Ick Hoon Jin, University of Notre Dame

• Zhiyong Zhang

• Ying Yuan, The University of Texas - M.D. Anderson Cancer Center