This dissertation empirically studies the economic effects of interdependent decision-making within social and financial networks in three distinct settings. Chapter 1 investigates whether the allocative inefficiency in a price-controlled market is more pronounced when decision makers are influenced by their social environment. For the renewable energy production in Germany, we find that existing solar panels in a municipality increase the probability of further installations, even in areas with minimal solar radiation. We conclude that a market-based mechanism could have led to a more cost-effective deployment of subsidies. Chapter 2 investigates the role of crowding---the degree to which a portfolio correlates with competitors' investments---for performance in the global active mutual fund market. Using a novel fund-level measure, we show that highly crowded portfolios underperform passive funds by 0.11% monthly. This underperformance stems largely from overexposure to liquid equities, potentially as a precaution against contagion risks. Chapter 3 examines dealer banks' intermediation in European repo markets under regulatory-induced asset scarcity. We show that dealers re-use collateral to alleviate scarcity, but this increases systemic risk through the sudden withdraw of collateral. This finding highlights a trade-off between shock absorption and systemic liquidity risks.
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