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Nash Equilibrium in the Ongoing Trade War

https://www.afr.com/personal-finance/china-v-america-trade-war-who-has-the-most-to-lose-20180904-h14wov In the beginning of June, Trump announced that the United States would be adding a 25% tariff on $34 billion worth of imported goods from China – particularly targeting industrial machinery, auto parts, and medical equipment. The Chinese government retaliated in a tit-for-tat manner, and the “Trade War” has been continuing for the past […]

Braess’ Paradox Applied to Social Network Marketing

Network structure and the phenomena that explain it are seemingly ubiquitous, and the behaviors defined in Braess’ Paradox are no exception. In their 2018 paper “Paradoxes in Social Networks with Multiple Products, ” Krzysztof Apt, Evangelos Markakis, and Sunil Simon examine the efficiency of product marketing within social networks, finding direct application of the well-known […]

Structure Balance Property in mergers

In a capitalist society, businesses compete against one another in every market possible. It is a policy that constantly makes the structure of the networks of companies in the market to constantly be in an unbalanced state. Due to this, instances of the market shifting to a balanced structure occurs occasionally. When there are such instances, […]

SoundCloud and the Triadic Closure Property

http://www.xxlmag.com/news/2018/08/soundcloud-survive-rappers-depart-more-profitable-streaming-services/   Today’s mainstream rap scene has become diluted with colorful-haired rappers with face tattoos. These “SoundCloud rappers” all seem to have flamboyant personalities that often outmatch their actual rapping abilities. They may not be the most talented musicians, but they have mastered one very important skill in making it in the entertainment business — […]

Overnight Shipping and Networks

See the article here: https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/a17643620/the-intense-invisible-infrastructure-that-gets-you-your-package-overnight/   In the day and age of Amazon Prime, 2-day shipping, and even overnight shipping, the instantaneous shipment and delivery of online goods has become commonplace. Statistics show the number of actual physical stores sales declining, while online sales are flying through the roof. In order to keep up with […]

Friends with Academic Benefits

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1536504216662237      In Janice McCabe’s paper “Friends with Academic Benefits,” she discusses a study of how college students’ friendship networks are related to various social and academic benefits, and how students from different backgrounds have distinctly different social networks. According to her paper, she categorized students’ friendship networks into three different types: tight-knitters, compartmentalizers, […]

Nash Equilibria in Rock-Paper-Scissors

https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-game-theory-math-behind-rock-paper-scissors-20180402/ This article explores the concept of Nash equilibria through a discussion of the game “Rock-Paper-Scissors.” The author explains how if one were to play rock-paper-scissors over and over again instead of stopping after, for example, “best of three,” a point is reached where neither side seems able to improve. This is because, as proved […]

How The Structural Balance Property Interprets Peter Pettigrew’s Betrayal to the Potters

http://dpmartin42.github.io/projects/Harry_Potter/Harry_Potter_Network.html   The link attached above shows a network in the world of Harry Potter. As one could easily imagine, the main character Harry Potter is represented by the red node that has connections with almost everyone else. However, what interested me is when I paid special attention to Scabbers, I found out that the […]

Can Venmo mimic a social network?

https://www.wired.com/story/venmo-alternatives In a world of digitalization, Venmo is at the forefront of the movement away from physical hard cash exchanges. Instead of having to remember to bring enough cash in your wallet, you can simply “split a check” with your friends with the simple touch of a button on your phone. Venmo is unique in […]

Game-Theoretic Poker Agents

http://poker.cs.ualberta.ca/publications/IJCAI03.pdf Commentary on paper: This paper explores how game theory can be used to model full-scale poker. The authors begin by pointing to past researchers (in 1950 and 1992) that have attempted to solve the game of poker, but with limited success. Namely, they had to simplify the game of poker insofar that it rendered […]

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