This class exists in these courses :
• IÉSEG > IESEG Degree - Programme Grande École > Semester 1 > 2,00 ECTS

Prerequisites

This course will use some game theory, statistics, econometrics, and analytical reasoning. The course will aim to be self-contained and develop concepts and tools from the ground up, but some (undergraduate-level) background in these areas is highly recommended.

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course the student should be able to :
-Represent a wide variety of real world business environments, such as in trade, finance, and supply chains as networks.
-Define the structure, function, robustness, and efficiency of such interconnected systems.
-Suggest improvements to the design of existing networks in business.
-Develop approaches to studying networks for research.

Course description

Networks are everywhere. Global trade, supply chains, financial markets, the World Wide Web, professional and social communities are examples of interconnected systems that are important to the structure and function of the modern world. The pattern of connections in such systems can often be represented as a network, the components of the system being the nodes and the connections the links. Networks are a general yet powerful means of representing patterns of connections or interactions between parts of such systems. The first part of this course will introduce tools for the study of networks and show how common principles permeate the functioning of diverse networks and how the same issues related to robustness, fragility, and interlinkages arise in different types of networks. The second part of this course will use examples and applications of the network approach to reveal new and useful insights into trade, finance, business, and society.

Class type

Class structure

Teaching methods

• E-learning
• Presentation
• Project work
• Research

Assessment

Course grades will depend on daily short quizzes (30%), a final exam (40%), class participation (10%) and a group project presentation at the end of the course (20%).

Recommended reading

• Social and Economic Networks, by Matthew O. Jackson, Princeton University Press, 2008. Specific chapters as referenced below and available online. (MJ). -

• Networks, Crowds, and Markets: Reasoning about a Highly Connected World, by David Easley and Jon Kleinberg, Cambridge University Press, 2010. Specific Chapters as referenced below and available online. (EK). -

  A complete pre-publication draft is available for free at
  http://www.cs.cornell.edu/home/kleinber/networks-book/

Internet resources

• http://www.stanford.edu/~jacksonm/netbook.pdf

• http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/s2_8767.pdf

• http://www.cs.cornell.edu/home/kleinber/networks-book/

• http://economics.mit.edu/faculty/acemoglu/courses

• http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v393/n6684/abs/393440a0.html

• http://www.barabasilab.com/pubs/CCNR-ALB_Publications/200201-30_RevModernPhys-StatisticalMech/200201-30_RevModernPhys-StatisticalMech.pdf

• https://sites.google.com/site/ucinetsoftware/home