Information Cascade and Tuilp Mania
Tulip bulbs first arrived in Holland at the end of the 16th century. They initially caused great excitement due to their exoticism and so they quickly became status symbols. This was the beginning of “Tulip mania”, one of the most famous bubbles in financial history. While the beginning of the meteoric rise in Tulip prices […]
Network Structure of Social Media and Information Cascade Lead to Social Polarization Online
Link: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-social-media-makes-us-more-polarized-and-how-to-fix-it/ Social media has had a bad reputation for making society more polarized. We often blame the users for staying within echo chambers and refusing to read the other side of the story. However, the users may indeed make rational choices when choosing to agree or disagree with some arguments on social media although […]
Understanding the World Trade Network with a Hub and Authority Model
International economists are interested in developing sound theories to model international trade patterns. Many of these models understand global trade as a graph. In this graph, the nodes are nations participating in trade, and an edge between nations symbolizes trade. These edges can take on a number of properties, such as weight and direction, to […]
The algorithm behind the For You Page of Tik Tok
Tik Tok has quickly become one of the most valuable private companies in the world after becoming vastly popular amongst younger demographics. A lot of the success of this application can be attributed to the For You Page, where users scroll through videos of 15-60 seconds that are generated by a powerful recommendation system. This […]
How Facebook Became a Powerhouse Through Network Effects
https://www.wired.com/2012/05/network-effects-and-global-domination-the-facebook-strategy/ A network effect is any situation where every new user that joins a platform provides benefit to all users that already are a part of that platform. The network therefore gains more value for users as more people use it. In the social media industry, Facebook takes a lead by targeting people’s innate drive […]