Associate Professor Cui Zhiwei of the School of Economics, Renmin University of China (RUC) published an article titled “Linking friction, social coordination and the speed of evolution” on Games and Economic Behavior, one of the top Journals of Game Theory.

Cui Zhiwei once conducted visiting research at the Department of Economics at the University of Essex. His main research interests are network game theory and application, game learning theory and application, behavioral economics theory, and microeconomic theory. He has published more than ten papers in international mainstream economics journals such as the Journal of Economic Theory, Games and Economic Behavior (2 papers), Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control (2 papers), and Journal of Mathematical Economics.

Abstract

We consider a model of social coordination and network formation where agents decide on an action in a coordination game and on whom to form costly links with. We explore the role of linking friction, where an agent cannot change all of her links simultaneously when choosing an alternative linking decision. Given linking friction, interaction structures are not fully flexible. We introduce a new solution concept of static equilibria, local Nash equilibria, and find that the set of local Nash equilibria may include action-heterogenous strategy profiles. Furthermore, risk-dominant strategy profiles are stochastically stable when linking friction is restrictive, and payoff-dominant strategy profiles are stochastically stable when linking friction becomes less restrictive. More importantly, linking friction can greatly accelerate the emergence of payoff-dominant strategy profiles.

For more details, please refer to https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geb.2023.04.011.