Strategic Origins of Network Structure
In briefStrategic Origins of Network Structure: Game-Graph Equilibria and Mechanistic Inference
SummaryThe paper introduces the game-graph equilibrium, a stable rest point of a payoff-driven partner-choice dynamic analogous to Nash equilibrium, presenting network structure as the record of strategic interaction. The authors prove that two-type games have exactly four network topologies and generalize this to K^K classes for K-type interactions. They also develop a mechanistic inference method that constrains a block model to a game-theoretic manifold to recover generating dynamics from observed networks, applying it to real networks such as international trade.