Social networks are important determinants of the lives of individuals, but much of my research examines the role of social networks among larger units of analysis, such as cities or nation-states.
I find that macro-networks consist of distinct positions that promote or discourage certain kinds of behavior . A number of important city or country level outcomes, such as the prevalence of different types of economic activity, rates of economic growth and the structure of labor markets vary by the unit's position in larger social network. Some of my worke also advances the methodological literature in social network analysis.
My own research
Bandelj, Nina, Matthew C. Mahutga and Kristen Shorette. 2015 "Signaling Demand for Foreign
Investment: The Rise of Postsocialist Countries in the Global Bilateral Investment Treaties
Network." Europe-Asia Studies 67(6): 870-892
Mahutga, Matthew C. 2014 "Production Networks and the Organization of the Global Manufacturing
Economy." Sociological Perspectives 57(2): 229-255.
Mahutga, Matthew C. 2014 "Global Models of Networked Organization, the Positional Power of Nations
and Economic Development." Review of International Political Economy 21(1): 157-194.
Mahutga, Matthew C. 2014 "Global Production Networks and International Inequality: Making a Case for
a Meso-Level Turn in Macro-Comparative Sociology." Journal of World-Systems Research 20(1): 11-37
Bandelj, Nina and Matthew C. Mahutga. 2013 "Structures of Globalization: Evidence from The
Evolution of the World-Wide Network of Bilateral Investment Treaties (1959-2009)." International
Journal of Comparative Sociology 54(2): 95-123.
Boyd, John, Matthew C. Mahutga and David A. Smith. 2013 "Measuring centrality and power recursively
in world-city networks: a Comment on Neal (2011)." Urban Studies 50(8): 1641-1647.
Clark, Robert V. and Matthew C. Mahutga. 2013. "Explaining the Trade-Growth Link: Assessing Diffusion-Based and Structure-Based Models of Exchange." Social Science Research 42(2): 401-417.
Mahutga, Matthew C. 2013 "Multi-relational International Trade Networks, 1965-2000." Connections 33(1):46-49.
Mahutga, Matthew C. and David A. Smith. 2011. "Globalization, The Structure of the World Economy and Economic Development." Social Science Research: 40(1): 257-72.
Boyd, John, William Fitzgerald, Matthew C. Mahutga and David A. Smith. 2010. “Computing Continuous Core/Periphery Structures for Social Relations Data Using MINRES SVD.” Social Networks 32(2): 125-137.
Mahutga, Matthew C., Xiulian Ma, David A. Smith and Michael Timberlake. 2010. "Economic Globalization and the Structure of the World-City System: The Case of Airline Passenger Data." Urban Studies 47(9): 1925-1947.
Lloyd, Paulette, Matthew C. Mahutga and Jan de Leeuw. 2009. “Looking Back and Forging Ahead: Thirty Years of Social Network Research on the World-System.” Journal of World-System Research 15(1): 48-85.
Mahutga, Matthew C. 2006. "The Persistence of Structural Inequality? A Network Analysis of International Trade, 1965-2000." Social Forces 84(4): 1863-89.
