The Journal of Economic Theory

Antoni Calvó-Armengol

Antoni ("Toni") Calvó-Armengol passed away on November 3, 2007 at the age of 37.

Economics has not only lost a wonderful and energetic person, but also a gifted theorist.

Toni made important contributions on several subjects, and in a short time had become one of the leading theorists of his generation. Some of the highlights include Toni's work on social networks in labor markets. That work showed how patterns of employment and wages that were not well-understood with existing models could be explained when one takes into account the sharing of job information through networks. He also developed a simple but elegant network model of criminal behavior and other interactions that involve local network complementarities. The model provides an elegant connection between behavior and the centrality of players in the network, showing how the influence of players on equilibrium play can be accounted for with existing measures of how central a player is. Toni's research was wide-ranging, and even explored his Andorran roots. In one paper, he showed how a mutual fire insurance scheme, called "La Crema," used in the rural farm communities of Andorra could be understood as an efficient mechanism for sharing risk.

Toni's deep passion for economics and for life will be sorely missed.

Selected Publications:

Antonio Cabrales, Antoni Calvo-Armengol, and Matthew O. Jackson (2003) "La Crema: Fire Insurance in a Village Economy of Modern Day Europe," Journal of Political Economy, vol. 111, no. 2, pp 425-458.

Antoni Calvo-Armengol and Matthew O. Jackson (2004) "The Effects of Social Networks on Employment and Inequality," American Economic Review, Vol. 94, No. 3, 426-454.

Antoni Calvo-Armengol (2004) "Job Contact Networks," Journal of Economic Theory, 115, 191-206.

Caralio Ballester., Antoni Calvo-Armengol, and Yves Zenou (2006) "Who's Who in Networks: Wanted the Key Player," Econometrica, Vol. 74, No. 5, 1403-1417.

Antoni Calvo-Armengol and Matthew O. Jackson (2007) "Networks in Labor Markets: Wage Dynamics and Inequality," Journal of Economic Theory, Vol. 132, No. 1, 27-46.