14 research outputs found
Threshold models of cascades in large-scale networks
The spread of new beliefs, behaviors, and technologies in social and economic networks are often driven by cascading mechanisms. Global behaviors emerge from the interplay between the interconnections structure and the local agents interactions. We focus on the Threshold Model (TM) of cascades that can be interpreted as the best response dynamics in a network game. Each agent is equipped with an individual threshold representing the number of her neighbors who must have adopted a certain action for that to become the agent's best response. We analyze the TM dynamics on large-scale networks with heterogeneous agents. Through a local mean-field approach, we obtain a nonlinear, one-dimensional, recursive equation that approximates the TM's evolution on most of the networks of a given size and distribution of degrees and thresholds. Specifically, we prove that, on all but a fraction of networks with given degree and threshold statistics that is vanishing as the network size grows large, the actual fraction of adopters of a given action in the TM dynamics is arbitrarily close to the output of the aforementioned recursion. Finally, we analyze the dynamic behavior and bifurcations of this recursion and complement the predictions with numerical simulations on real network testbeds
On games with coordinating and anti-coordinating agents
This work studies Nash equilibria for heterogeneous games where both
coordinating and anti-coordinating agents coexist. Whilst games with only
coordinating or only anti-coordinating agents are potential also in the
presence of heterogenities, this is no longer true for games when a mixture of
coordinating and anti-coordinating players interact. We provide a complete
characterization of the set of Nash equilibria for games with mixed
coordinating and anti-coordinating agents with heterogeneous utilities
interacting on an all-to-all network.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figure
Life of the Party: Social Networks, Public Attention, and the Importance of Shocks in the Presidential Nomination Process
We examine the effects of shocks on the invisible Presidential primary in the United States. First, we build on existing models using an algorithm simulating social network shocks. Findings show that positive shocks significantly aid the lead candidate’s chances of winning in the invisible primary. Negative shocks, however, are less detrimental to a lead candidate than positive shocks are helpful, as the leader is often able to survive a negative shock and still emerge victorious. Broad empirical tests demonstrate the importance of shocks as well. Beyond the importance of shocks, findings also suggest that Presidential candidate success in the invisible primary owes more to public- than elite-driven factors
Cascading failures: dynamics, stability and control
We develop a dynamic model of cascading failures in a financial network
whereby cross-holdings are viewed as feedback, external assets investments as
inputs and failure penalties as static nonlinearities. We provide sufficient
milder and stronger conditions for the system to be a positive one, and study
equilibrium points and stability. Stability implies absence of cascades and
convergence of market values to constant values. We provide a constructive
method for control design to obtain stabilizing market investments in the form
of feedback-feedforward control inputs
Equilibria and Systemic Risk in Saturated Networks
We undertake a fundamental study of network equilibria modeled as solutions
of fixed point equations for monotone linear functions with saturation
nonlinearities. The considered model extends one originally proposed to study
systemic risk in networks of financial institutions interconnected by mutual
obligations and is one of the simplest continuous models accounting for shock
propagation phenomena and cascading failure effects. It also characterizes Nash
equilibria of constrained quadratic network games with strategic
complementarities. We first derive explicit expressions for network equilibria
and prove necessary and sufficient conditions for their uniqueness encompassing
and generalizing results available in the literature. Then, we study jump
discontinuities of the network equilibria when the exogenous flows cross
certain regions of measure 0 representable as graphs of continuous functions.
Finally, we discuss some implications of our results in the two main motivating
applications. In financial networks, this bifurcation phenomenon is responsible
for how small shocks in the assets of a few nodes can trigger major aggregate
losses to the system and cause the default of several agents. In constrained
quadratic network games, it induces a blow-up behavior of the sensitivity of
Nash equilibria with respect to the individual benefits.Comment: 26 page
Optimal Targeting in Super-Modular Games
We study an optimal targeting problem for super-modular games with binary
actions and finitely many players. The considered problem consists in the
selection of a subset of players of minimum size such that, when the actions of
these players are forced to a controlled value while the others are left to
repeatedly play a best response action, the system will converge to the
greatest Nash equilibrium of the game. Our main contributions consist in
showing that the problem is NP-complete and in proposing an efficient iterative
algorithm with provable convergence properties for its solution. We discuss in
detail the special case of network coordination games and its relation with the
notion of cohesiveness. Finally, we show with simulations the strength of our
approach with respect to naive heuristics based on classical network centrality
measures
Analysis and control of agreement and disagreement opinion cascades
We introduce and analyze a continuous time and state-space model of opinion
cascades on networks of large numbers of agents that form opinions about two or
more options. By leveraging our recent results on the emergence of agreement
and disagreement states, we introduce novel tools to analyze and control
agreement and disagreement opinion cascades. New notions of agreement and
disagreement centrality, which depend only on network structure, are shown to
be key to characterizing the nonlinear behavior of agreement and disagreement
opinion formation and cascades. Our results are relevant for the analysis and
control of opinion cascades in real-world networks, including biological,
social and artificial networks, and for the design of opinion-forming behaviors
in robotic swarms. We illustrate an application of our model to a multi-robot
task-allocation problem and discuss extensions and future directions opened by
our modeling framework