Synopsis of Research in Shanghai (October 9 - December 1)：
Balestra’s PhD research focuses on the understanding the “what,” “how,” and “why” of complex behavioral trajectories among users of peer production and sharing economy platforms. She is interested in questions related to: (1) the emergence and characterization of complex, dynamic user roles in decentralized and networked systems, (2) the structural, motivational, and dispositional determinants of who falls into what role, and (3) how individual, localized patterns of engagement give way to global system behavior. While in Shanghai, Balestra intends to work on a project that aims to understand dynamic decision-making processes in online peer-to-peer lending. She hopes to take advantage of access to faculty in the Institute for the Interdisciplinary Study of Decision Making and the Center for Data Science and Analytics, including learning more about Chinese platforms and data repositories.