Complex-systems research is becomingly increasingly data-driven, particularly in the social and biological domains. Many of the systems from which sample data are collected feature structural heterogeneity at the mesoscopic scale (i.e. communities) and limited inter-community diffusion. Here we...

Many collective human activities, including violence, have been shown to exhibit universal patterns1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19. The size distributions of casualties both in whole wars from 1816 to 1980 and terrorist attacks have separately been shown to...

We re-examine the Lewis undermigration by studying a two-sector model in which there is a trade-off between higher productivity in the modern sector and better information in the traditional sector. The consequent presence of well-functioning local insurance markets in the traditional sector and...

We examine the interactions between different institutional arrangements in a general equilibrium model of a modernizing economy. There is a modern sector, where productivity is high but information asymmetries are large, and a traditional sector where productivity is low but information...

Economics

This paper studies the effects of social network based lending. This is a pervasive phenomenon in most of the developing world. Access to such network capital has an obvious influence on investment. It also influences the pattern of migration since, ceteris paribus, migrants would prefer to be...

Economics

Economics

How does uncertainty and credit constraints affect the cyclical composition of investment and thereby volatility and growth? This paper addresses this question within a model where firms engage in two types of investment: a short-term one; and a long-term one, which contributes more to...