Constrained Network Formation

Pietro Battiston

Italian Economic Journal: A Continuation of Rivista Italiana degli Economisti and Giornale degli Economisti, 2016, vol. 2, issue 3, No 3, 347-362

Abstract: Abstract This study presents a novel framework for the study of endogenous network growth subject to constraints. The literature on strategic network formation analysed the specific case of positive constraints: in the present work, the model is extended to constraints which can be negative and change in time depending on the actions of the agents. A characterisation of stable networks in the static case is provided, and it is proved that finding them is computationally difficult unless specific assumptions are made. The framework can be applied to contexts in which the formation of a link inhibits or implies the formation of another one, typically due to time, space or capacity constraints. Two specific examples are investigated, highlighting the importance of modelling constraints in order to obtain credible simulations and null models: the network of corporate control and the network of citations among scientific papers.

Keywords: Network formation; Nash equilibrium; Complexity of equilibria; Network analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C55 C72 D85 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s40797-016-0040-0 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:italej:v:2:y:2016:i:3:d:10.1007_s40797-016-0040-0

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/40797

DOI: 10.1007/s40797-016-0040-0

Access Statistics for this article

Italian Economic Journal: A Continuation of Rivista Italiana degli Economisti and Giornale degli Economisti is currently edited by Roberto Cellini

More articles in Italian Economic Journal: A Continuation of Rivista Italiana degli Economisti and Giornale degli Economisti from Springer, Società Italiana degli Economisti (Italian Economic Association) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().