Kolloquium: Alvaro Dominguez (Asian Growth Research Institute¸ Kitakyushu, Japan) "An Economics Approach to Networks: Clusters & Diffusion"

Abstract:                                                                                                                                 Networks are ubiquitous. They are present in society, friendships, and in all types of social and natural phenomena. Many relationships are “networked,” and understanding their structures can help in recognizing behaviors and outcomes in situations such as the spread of diseases or misinformation, which agents or groups are the most influential or powerful in society, how tightly connected clusters or communities form, and so on. In this talk, we discuss why networks matter and how economics has, in recent times, been relying more on them, both theoretically and empirically, to analyze various issues that are important to social scientists. We focus on the different literature and methods related to clusters and diffusion on networks and their various applications.