Abstract
We model the formation of friendships as repeated cooperation within a set of heterogeneous players. The model is built around three of the most important facts about friendship: friends help each other, there is reciprocity in the relationship and people usually have only a few friends. In our results, we explain how similarity between people affects the friendship selection. We also characterize the long-run friendship network and illustrate how friendships emerge given the random process by which people meet each other.
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Many thanks to Itai Agur, Pascal Courty, Ilan Eshel, Anna Orlik, Karl Schlag, Sanne Zwart, two anonymous referees, the associate editor and the editor for very useful comments and discussions. I also thank the seminar participants at the European University Institute and University of Wisconsin-Madison.
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Rivas, J. Friendship selection. Int J Game Theory 38, 521–538 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00182-009-0168-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00182-009-0168-3