15: Follow the Leader: Simulations on a Dynamic Social Network

Author(s):

David Goldbaum, Economics Discipline Group, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, Australia

Date of publication: November 2013

Working paper number: 15

Abstract: This paper introduces a process of individual adjustment based on private local experiences and observation that allows for the emergence of a global social structure that is the equilibrium to the static follow-the-leader game of Goldbaum (2013). The setting rewards agents for being early adopters of popular products or trends. From simple, myopic, self-serving adjustment based on historic evidence by individuals emerges the equilibrium social structure consisting of a single choice leader and a population of followers, which, in the static setting would require an unlikely degree of coordination to produce. Individual actions take place in a social context with individuals linked via one-way paths of observation. The strategy by which an agent chooses among the available options evolves over time. Di fferent adjustment emergent processes contribute towards the understanding of the unfolding of events that generate the equilibrium structure.

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