Compare methods

	E-I Index	Homophily Analysis
Field	Sociology	Sociology
Family	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
Year of origin	1988	1954 (concept); 2001 (synthesis)
Originator	David Krackhardt & Robert Stern	Lazarsfeld & Merton (concept); McPherson, Smith-Lovin & Cook (synthesis)
Type	Index of the relative balance of between-group versus within-group ties	Measurement of similarity-based tie formation
Seminal source	Krackhardt, D., & Stern, R. N. (1988). Informal networks and organizational crises: An experimental simulation. Social Psychology Quarterly, 51(2), 123–140.	McPherson, M., Smith-Lovin, L., & Cook, J. M. (2001). Birds of a feather: homophily in social networks. Annual Review of Sociology, 27, 415–444.
Aliases	EI index, external-internal index, Krackhardt-Stern E-I ratio, E/I ratio	homophily measurement, assortative mixing analysis, birds-of-a-feather analysis, tie-similarity analysis
Related	5	4
Summary	The external-internal (E-I) index, introduced by Krackhardt and Stern, measures the extent to which the ties of a group point outward to other groups versus inward to its own members. It is the number of between-group (external) ties minus the number of within-group (internal) ties, divided by the total number of ties. Ranging from −1 (all ties internal, perfect insularity) to +1 (all ties external), it is a compact summary of homophily and group closure that can be computed for a whole network, for each group, or for each node.	Homophily analysis quantifies the tendency of similar individuals to form ties — the principle that 'birds of a feather flock together'. It compares the rate at which people connect with others who share an attribute (race, gender, age, education, attitudes) against what would be expected by chance, distinguishing the homophily that arises merely from group sizes from the genuine, behavior-driven preference for similar others.