Complex Social Networks

The book provides a systematic and self-contained account of the fast-developing theory of complex social networks. Social networks are central to the understanding of most socio-economic phenomena in the modern world. The classical approach to studying them relies on a methodology that abstracts from their size and complexity. In contrast, the approach taken in this book keeps complexity at the core, whilst integrating it with the incentive considerations that are preeminent in traditional economic analysis. The treatment starts with a detailed discussion of the basic models that act as ‘benchmarks’ for the complex-network literature: random networks, small worlds, and scale-free networks, before studying three different forces that underlie almost all network phenomena in social contexts: diffusion, search, and play. Finally, these forces are combined into a unified framework that is brought to bear on the issue of network formation and the coevolution of agents' behaviour and their pattern of interaction.

This 2007 book provides a systematic and self-contained account of the fast-developing theory of complex social networks. Social networks are central to the understanding of most socio-economic phenomena in the modern world. The classical approach to studying them relies on a methodology that abstracts from their size and complexity. In contrast, the approach taken in this book keeps complexity at the core, whilst integrating it with the incentive considerations that are preeminent in traditional economic analysis. The treatment starts with a detailed discussion of the basic models that act as 'benchmarks' for the complex-network literature: random networks, small worlds, and scale-free networks, before studying three different forces that underlie almost all network phenomena in social contexts: diffusion, search, and play. Finally, these forces are combined into a unified framework that is brought to bear on the issue of network formation and the coevolution of agents' behaviour and their pattern of interaction.

1. Introduction; 2. Complex networks: basic theory; 3. Epidemic diffusion; 4. Neighborhood effects in diffusion and play; 5. Searching in social networks; 6. Search, diffusion, and play in coevolving networks; Afterword; Appendix A. Generating functions; Appendix B. The Ising model; Appendix C. Mean-field theory.

Provides a systematic account of the fast-developing theory of complex social networks. Starting with a discussion of the basic 'benchmark' models for the complex-network literature: random networks, small worlds, and scale-free networks, the book then considers the three forces that underlie network phenomena in social contexts: diffusion, search, and play.

Fernando Vega-Redondo is Professor of Economics at the University of Alicante, Spain and the University of Essex, UK. He also taught at the Autonomous University of Barcelona and has held visiting positions at Harvard University, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, University of California-San Diego, Boston University and Cornell University. Professor Vega-Redondo is the author of Economics and the Theory of Games (Cambridge University Press, 2003) and Evolution, Games, and Economic Behavior (1996). He has written more than 70 articles in professional journals, including the Journal of Economic Theory, Econometrica, International Economic Review, and Games and Economic Behavior. Professor Vega-Redondo received his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in 1984.