“Networks are everywhere: the infrastructure that brings water into our homes, the social networks made up of our friends and families, the supply chains connecting cities, people, and goods,” says Professor Goyal, explaining that networks are central to an understanding of the production, consumption, and information that lie at the heart of economic activity.
“These networks reflect economic trade-offs: for example, should an airline operate direct flights between cities or route all its flights through a hub? Viewing networks through an economics lens, the book considers the costs and benefits that govern their formation and functioning,’’ he says.
The first section introduces the theoretical foundations. The second section examines economic networks, including infrastructure, security, market power, and financial networks. The third section covers social networks, with chapters on coordinating activity, communication and learning, information networks, epidemics, and impersonal markets. Finally, in the fourth and last section, Professor Goyal locates social and economic networks in a broader context covering networked markets, economic development, trust, and group networks in their relation to markets and the state.
The book uses materials from projects funded by the Keynes Fund, including:
- Social Learning and Fake News
- Efficiency and Inequality in a Network Economy
- Experiments on 'Networked Markets'
- Experiments on Financial Networks
Sanjeev Goyal FBA is currently Arthur C. Pigou Professor of Economics at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge.
Further details: https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262048033/networks/
Media Contact: Julian Lorkin on j.lorkin@econ.cam.ac.uk or 07958 441776
