Workings of the Melting Pot: Social Networks and the Evolution of Population Attributes

Jan K. Brueckner () and Oleg Smirnov ()

No CESifo Working Paper No. 1320, CESifo Working Paper Series from CESifo Group Munich

Abstract: This paper links the two nascent economic literatures on social networks and cultural assimilation by investigating the evolution of population attributes in a simple model where agents are influenced by their acquaintances. The main conclusion of the analysis is that attributes converge to a melting-pot equilibrium, where everyone is identical, provided the social network exhibits a sufficient degree of interconnectedness. When the model is extended to allow an expanding acquaintance set, convergence is guaranteed provided a weaker interconnectedness condition is satisfied, and convergence is rapid. If the intensity of interactions with acquaintances becomes endogenous, convergence (when it occurs) is slowed when agents prefer to interact with people like themselves and hastened when interaction with dissimilar agents is preferred.

JEL-codes: J00 J10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ure
Date: 2004
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