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Introduction to Actor-Based Models for Network Dynamics (2008)
| Citations: | 26 - 1 self |
BibTeX
@MISC{Snijders08introductionto,
author = {Tom A. B. Snijders},
title = {Introduction to Actor-Based Models for Network Dynamics},
year = {2008}
}
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Abstract
Research utilizing the perspective of social networks can shed important light on political processes, as is illustrated by the other articles in this issue and also the special issue Social Networks and American Politics of American Politics Research (Heaney and McClurg, 2009). This perspective offers some complications for statistical analysis, however. A network approach is so useful because it can represent the interdependence between political actors (see Huckfeldt, 2009) – but statistical modeling is commonly based on independence assumptions. The challenge in statistical modeling of social network data is to represent the dependencies between network ties so that valid inferences can be obtained and misspecification avoided; and, by doing so, to provide methods that allow researchers to test hypotheses about these interdependencies. This article treats statistical methods for network panel data. It is assumed that the reader has a basic knowledge of networks and the associated terminology; see, e.g., Wasserman and Faust (1994) or Knoke and Yang (2008). For the data structure it is assumed that a fixed set of nodes is being considered – where, however, exceptions are allowed in the sense that some nodes may enter or leave the network – while the change
Keyphrases
actor-based model network dynamic statistical modeling special issue social network fixed set social network statistical analysis important light political process basic knowledge valid inference data structure american politics associated terminology statistical method political actor network panel data american politics research network approach independence assumption social network data network tie
