Social Media Fueling Network Cascades
With technology dominating our social landscape, an increasingly large number of people place importance on social media and the validation they receive from social media likes. The article talks about how the fast-paced nature of social media has driven our society to overshare without enough time to think first. We want to feel accepted by […]
Disinformation today
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/facebook-twitter-and-the-digital-disinformation-mess/2019/10/01/53334c08-e4b4-11e9-b0a6-3d03721b85ef_story.html Whoever controls the spread of information controls the world and disinformation is that power gone wrong. With the rise of social media giants and websites in modern times, bringing news easily to people in their homes, spreading information and news has never been easier. However, that information does not have to be truthful or […]
Bayes’ Rule Applications in Sports Betting
https://www.pinnacle.com/en/betting-articles/Betting-Strategy/bayesian-analysis-and-sports-betting/5VM2U95MX696RGXP The instant gratification and excitement that comes with gambling is undoubtedly addicting. Many gamblers believe their superstitions and good luck charms will someday pay off in a big way. However, as the math has shown time and time again, casinos are rigged against the players in the long run. Aside from the highly skilled […]
Matching Markets in Kidney Exchange
https://qz.com/421547/nobel-prize-winner-alvin-roth-explains-the-hidden-economics-behind-tinder-marriage-and-college-admissions/ In 2015, Matt Philips used Tinder, marriage, and college admissions to discuss the many relatable real-world examples of matching markets that exist and are part of our daily life. These matching markets govern decisions such as hiring a person, admitting a student, marrying your spouse and they also obey laws more complex than the […]
Cascade of Cigarette Use in light of Vaping Concerns
Following the explosion of news of vaping-related deaths and illnesses, people have started smoking cigarettes, instead. The astronomical rise of vaping was, itself, mostly a cascade resulting from people copying the decisions of their peers to vape. This occurred mostly in middle schools, high schools, and colleges where the amount of young people vaping grew […]
How The Blockchain Takes Network Effects Onto A New Level
https://medium.com/mit-cryptoeconomics-lab/the-blockchain-effect-86bd01006ec2 In the article “The Blockchain Effect: Network Effects without Market Power Costs”, Cathy Berrera discusses that the decentralization of blockchain bolsters network effects to be more effective during diffusion. For a product or service that many use,, the join of new members is often advantageous. However, as we have learned in class, network effects […]
How Airbnb Disrupted the Hospitality Industry with Network Effects
https://skift.com/2018/07/18/airbnb-could-be-worth-more-than-any-hotel-company-but-faces-ipo-hurdles/ With the advancements of technology, there has come a new type of industry known as the “Share Economy”. The “Share Economy” is an industry where companies provide a platform for people to share and monetize their property with other people. Airbnb, as one of the leaders of the “Share Economy”, allows people to list […]
Power Laws in the Real World
https://www.quantamagazine.org/scant-evidence-of-power-laws-found-in-real-world-networks-20180215/ In this article, correspondent Erica Klarreich presents conflicting claims about the prevalence of power laws, or “scale-freeness,” in real-world networks, such as those found in metabolics and on the web. When former physicist Albert-László Barabási first started research on the behavior of networks in the 1990s, he was adamant that the scale-free paradigm was […]
Rich get richer and poor get poorer in this economy
The unemployment rate was below 4.5 percent for most of the past two years in Houston, the companies need to offer better pay and benefits in order to find the labor. However, there rate of people without health insurance has grown into the worst in the nation among major cities. The unemployment rate has averaged […]
The Pareto Distribution: A Power Law Distribution
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/nov/11/occupy-movement-wealth-power-law-distribution The article details the realities behind the forces which were being opposed by the Occupy Wall Street movement. During the Occupy Wall Street protest movement in 2011, protestors were upset with the inequitable distribution of wealth, honing in on the extreme differences between the “1%” and the “99%”. Protestors were not only concerned with […]
keep looking »