Description:

Speaker: Vasu Chaudhary

Title: Diffusion of Rival Information

Abstract:  Social networks shape access to opportunities, such as new technologies or government programs, yet existing research assumes information sharing is costless. I study how rivalry over scarce opportunities affects information sharing behavior. When sharing creates competition, three forces emerge: dilution effects (competitive costs decrease with saturation), value-scaled altruism (benefits to recipients decrease with saturation), and social capital returns. These generate ambiguous predictions with critical policy implications: can programs use broad seeding with common knowledge to increase sharing behavior. I propose experiments that systematically vary saturation, competition structure, and pivotality to isolate each mechanism. A complementary field experiment will test seeding strategies in a real labor market context with consequential stakes.