The Diffusion of Innovations in Social Networks.

Working paper

We consider processes in which new technologies and forms of behavior are transmitted through social and geographic networks. Agents adopt behaviors based on a combination of their inherent payoff and their local popularity (the number of neighbors who have adopted them) subject to some random error. We characterize the long-run dynamics of such processes in terms of the geometry of the network, but without placing a priori restrictions on the network structure. When agents interact in sufficiently small, close-knit groups, the expected waiting time until almost everyone is playing the stochastically stable equilibrium is bounded above independently of the number of agents and independently of the initial state.

Authors: Young, H

• Publisher: Department of Economics (Johns Hopkins University)
• Series: Working papers
• Publication date: 2000-01-01
• Language: English