Evolutionary games defined at the network mesoscale: The Public Goods game Articles uri icon

published in

publication date

  • March 2011

start page

  • 1

end page

  • 10

issue

  • 1 (016113)

volume

  • 21

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

  • 1054-1500

Electronic International Standard Serial Number (EISSN)

  • 1089-7682

abstract

  • FOCUS ISSUE: MESOSCALES IN COMPLEX NETWORKS. [RESUMEN]. The evolutionary dynamics of the Public Goods game addresses the emergence of cooperation within groups of individuals. However, the Public Goods game on large populations of interconnected individuals has been usually modeled without any knowledge about their group structure. In this paper, by focusing on collaboration networks, we show that it is possible to include the mesoscopic information about the structure of the real groups by means of a bipartite graph. We compare the results with the projected (coauthor) and the original bipartite graphs and show that cooperation is enhanced by the mesoscopic structure contained. We conclude by analyzing the influence of the size of the groups in the evolutionary success of cooperation.