Networks of relationships help determine the careers that people choose, the jobs they obtain, the products they buy, and how they vote. The many aspects of our lives that are governed by social networks make it critical to understand how they impact behavior, which network structures are likely to emerge in a society, and why we organize ourselves as we do. In Social and Economic Networks, Matthew Jackson offers a comprehensive introduction to social and economic networks, drawing on the latest findings in economics, sociology, computer science, physics, and mathematics. He provides empirical background on networks and the regularities that they exhibit, and discusses random graph-based models and strategic models of network formation. He helps readers to understand behavior in networked societies, with a detailed analysis of learning and diffusion in networks, decision making by individuals who are influenced by their social neighbors, game theory and markets on networks, and a host of related subjects. Jackson also describes the varied statistical and modeling techniques used to analyze social networks. Each chapter includes exercises to aid students in their analysis of how networks function. This book is an indispensable resource for students and researchers in economics, mathematics, physics, sociology, and business.

This book uses rigorous mathematical analysis to advance opinion dynamics models for social networks in three major directions. First, a novel model is proposed to capture how a discrepancy between an individual’s private and expressed opinions can develop due to social pressures that arise in group situations or through extremists deliberately shaping public opinion. Detailed theoretical analysis of the final opinion distribution is followed by use of the model to study Asch’s seminal experiments on conformity, and the phenomenon of pluralistic ignorance. Second, the DeGroot-Friedkin model for evolution of an individual’s social power (self-confidence) is developed in a number of directions. The key result establishes that an individual’s initial social power is forgotten exponentially fast, even when the network changes over time; eventually, an individual’s social power depends only on the (changing) network structure. Last, a model for the simultaneous discussion of multiple logically interdependent topics is proposed. To ensure that a consensus across the opinions of all individuals is achieved, it turns out that the interpersonal interactions must be weaker than an individual’s introspective cognitive process for establishing logical consistency among the topics. Otherwise, the individual may experience cognitive overload and the opinion system becomes unstable. Conclusions of interest to control engineers, social scientists, and researchers from other relevant disciplines are discussed throughout the thesis with support from both social science and control literature.

Since its inception by Perron and Frobenius, the theory of non-negative matrices has developed enormously and is now being used and extended in applied fields of study as diverse as probability theory, numerical analysis, demography, mathematical economics, and dynamic programming, while its development is still proceeding rapidly as a branch of pure mathematics in its own right. While there are books which cover this or that aspect of the theory, it is nevertheless not uncommon for workers in one or another branch of its development to be unaware of what is known in other branches, even though there is often formal overlap. One of the purposes of this book is to relate several aspects of the theory, insofar as this is possible. The author hopes that the book will be useful to mathematicians; but in particular to the workers in applied fields, so the mathematics has been kept as simple as could be managed. The mathematical requisites for reading it are: some knowledge of real-variable theory, and matrix theory; and a little knowledge of complex-variable; the emphasis is on real-variable methods. (There is only one part of the book, the second part of 55.5, which is of rather specialist interest, and requires deeper knowledge.) Appendices provide brief expositions of those areas of mathematics needed which may be less g- erally known to the average reader.

Strategic behavior is the key to social interaction, from the ever-evolving world of living beings to the modern theatre of designed computational agents. Strategies can make or break participants’ aspirations, whether they are selling a house, playing the stock market, or working toward a treaty that limits global warming. This book aims at understanding the phenomenon of strategic behavior in its proper width and depth. A number of experts have combined forces in order to create a comparative view of the different frameworks for strategic reasoning in social interactions that have been developed in game theory, computer science, logic, linguistics, philosophy, and cognitive and social sciences. The chapters are organized in three topic-based sections, namely reasoning about games; formal frameworks for strategies; and strategies in social situations. The book concludes with a discussion on the future of logical studies of strategies.

This book is a collection of selected papers presented at the consecutively held international conferences on “Game Theory and Networks”, organized by the Department of Mathematics, Dibrugarh University, India, in collaboration with the Economics Department of Queen’s University, Belfast, UK, during September 6–9, 2019 and September, 13–15 2018. The book includes chapters on network measures and network formation, application of network theory to contagion, biological data and finance and macroeconomics as expository articles. The book also contains chapters on fair allocation in the context of queuing, rationing and cooperative games with transferable utilities for engaged researchers. A few survey chapters on non-cooperative game theory, evolutionary game theory, mechanism design and social choice theory are also incorporated to cater to the needs of the beginners in the field. This book discusses the use of game theoretic tools and network models across disciplines: mathematics, statistics, economics, computer science, political science, sociology and psychology. It aims at providing a suitable learning experience to beginners on the basics of cooperative games, networks and mechanism design, as well as recent developments to research scholars having the basic knowledge of these topics.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the Third International Conference on Social Informatics, SocInfo 2011, held in Singapore in October 2011. The 15 full papers, 8 short papers and 13 posters included in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 68 full paper and 13 poster submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections named: network analysis; eGovernance and knowledge management; applications of network analysis; community dynamics; case studies; trust, privacy and security; peer-production.

Cooperative and Graph Signal Processing: Principles and Applications presents the fundamentals of signal processing over networks and the latest advances in graph signal processing. A range of key concepts are clearly explained, including learning, adaptation, optimization, control, inference and machine learning. Building on the principles of these areas, the book then shows how they are relevant to understanding distributed communication, networking and sensing and social networks. Finally, the book shows how the principles are applied to a range of applications, such as Big data, Media and video, Smart grids, Internet of Things, Wireless health and Neuroscience. With this book readers will learn the basics of adaptation and learning in networks, the essentials of detection, estimation and filtering, Bayesian inference in networks, optimization and control, machine learning, signal processing on graphs, signal processing for distributed communication, social networks from the perspective of flow of information, and how to apply signal processing methods in distributed settings. - Presents the first book on cooperative signal processing and graph signal processing - Provides a range of applications and application areas that are thoroughly covered - Includes an editor in chief and associate editor from the IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing and Information Processing over Networks who have recruited top contributors for the book