Social and Economic Networks

4.0 credits

Network theory is the study of how relationships among individuals, firms, and institutions shape social, economic, and political outcomes. It provides tools to analyze how connections determine the diffusion of information, the spread of epidemics, the fragility of financial systems, and the interdependence of industries. This course introduces and develops the basic concepts and measures of networks, including centrality, transitivity, and homophily, and applies them to cases such as opinion formation, input-output economics, macroeconomics, diffusion models, and financial contagion. The objective is to equip students with both theoretical and empirical tools to analyze networked systems.