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

Jan Brueckner and Oleg Smirnov

No 1320, CESifo Working Paper Series from CESifo

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.

Keywords: melting pot; social networks; cultural assimilation; population attributes (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2004
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ure
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Related works:
Journal Article: WORKINGS OF THE MELTING POT: SOCIAL NETWORKS AND THE EVOLUTION OF POPULATION ATTRIBUTES (2007)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ces:ceswps:_1320

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