Blockchain systems allow for securely keeping shared records of transactions in a decentralized way. This is enabled by consensus mechanisms. Proof-of-work is the most prominent consensus mechanism but has major shortcomings. In this paper, we focus on proof-of-stake, its best-known alternative....

We compare the Electoral College and the popular vote in a stylized two-candidate, three-district election game. Under the Electoral College, the winner of a district acquires all votes of the electorate; under the popular vote, each candidate acquires the votes s/he actually wins in each...

We study a planner’s optimal interventions in both the standalone marginal utilities of players on a network and weights on the links that connect players. The welfare-maximizing joint intervention exhibits the following properties: (a) when the planner’s budget is moderate (so that optimal...

We develop a network model of conflict in which players are involved in different battles. A negative shock in one locality affects the conflict in this locality but may also increase battles in path-connected localities depending on the location of the battle in the network and the strength of...

We study a very general contest game in which players exert efforts in multiple battles. The conflict structure, which represents who participates in which battlefield, is arbitrary and can be represented by a hypergraph. We show, under mild conditions on the cost function and contest...

Two types of intervention are commonly implemented in networks: characteristic intervention which influences individuals' intrinsic incentives, and structural intervention which targets at the social links among individuals. In this paper we provide a general framework to evaluate the distinct...

Network-based targeting is valuable in many applications such as diffusion of new technology, product promotion in marketing, among others. Nevertheless, how to quantitatively measure the effectiveness of targeting strategies remains a challenge. This paper studies a class of network games with...

As a common practice, various firms initially make information and access to their products/services scarce within a social network; identifying influential players that facilitate information dissemination emerges as a pivotal step for their success. In this paper, we tackle this problem using...

We aim at some simple theoretical underpinnings for the study of a complex empirical question studied by labor economists and others: does Information-technology improvement lead to occupational shifts -- toward "information workers" and away from other occupations -- and to changes in the...