Clustering and Content Overlap in Networked Consumers

Abstract

In previous chapters, a categorization of personal consumption in information and conventional goods has been introduced. It was posited that consumption of information in networks can increase efficiency for consumer objectives through properties of low obsolescence rates and non-rival borrowing. Welfare losses can occur because agents acting as independent entities do not typically include network externalities such as non-rival borrowing in the network in their allocation heuristics. As previously assessed, the contribution of non-rival borrowing to the stock of information clearly depends on the structure of consumer networks. In this chapter, I will more comprehensively address emergent properties of structure in the small world network as they relate to the consumption of information.