Over the past couple of decades it has become more and more recognised in economics that socio-economic institutions are essential for the functioning of the economy. This research has emanated from the seminal work of Douglas North in his study of various economic systems throughout economic history and of Ronald Coase in the understanding of…
New paper on partial cooperation
I just added a new working paper on partial cooperation in non-cooperative games on the economic theory page. It addresses how to consider a group of decision makers to coordinate certain strategic actions, while all other actions remain purely non-cooperative. The paper generalises the existing contributions to this partial cooperation problem to include more complex…
Game theory can only get Greece so far in its fight with Germany
A second article in The Conversation addresses how game theory can help us understand the plight of Greece in its relationship with the European Union.
Why Apple is the world’s most successful company – the power of networks
I have recently published an article on The Conversation web site on the success of Apple from a network perspective.
Freedom in our contemporary global economy
What is freedom? It seems that this question has become very important in the age of neoliberal decline of civic society. Recently, in an interview with the Guardian newspaper, the marxist philosopher Slavoj Zizek discussed freedom in our age of the Arab Spring and the Occupy movement. Zizek is as usual rather fuzzy about what exactly…
New paper posted
I have posted a new paper, co-authored by Owen Sims, on critical nodes in directed networks. It addresses the appropriate definition of what exactly critical nodes or middlemen are in the general class of directed networks. We also discuss the link with contestability in networks. Visit the network analysis page for more information and PDF…