INFORMATION AND THE DISTRIBUTION OF POWER IN EXCHANGE NETWORKS

While much attention has been paid to the identification and distribut ion of power in exchange networks, little has been paid to the role in formation plays in these processes. This is surprising because informa tion availability is one of the key differences between the two main e xperimental research paradigms in this field, power-dependence and net work exchange/elementary theory. The former investigates power distrib ution when subjects have no information about network structure while the latter examines the same problem under conditions of full informat ion. We derive specific hypotheses about power development in ''strong power'' networks under different information conditions using ''resis tance'' analysis, a set of orienting ideas found in network exchange/e lementary theory. We evaluate these derived functional forms against e xperimental data. We find that the effect of information on power deve lopment is consistent with the general resistance framework even thoug h there is little support for its specific claims.