Linking Network Structure and Diffusion Through Stochastic Dominance

Abstract

Recent research identifies stochastic dominance as critical for understanding the relationship between network structure and diffusion. This paper introduces the concept of stochastic dominance, explains the theory linking stochastic dominance and diffusion, and applies this theory to a number of diffusion studies in the literature. The paper illustrates how the theory connects observations from different disciplines, and details when and how those observations can be generalized to broader classes of networks.