Influence of Local Interactions in the Bak-Sneppen Model and Economic Applications

TL;DR

This paper extends the Bak-Sneppen model by incorporating local interactions, affecting species' fitness and survival, with potential applications in economics where firms are modeled as evolving species.

Contribution

It introduces local interactions into the Bak-Sneppen model, altering its dynamics and broadening the fitness distribution, and discusses economic applications.

Findings

Fitness distribution broadens with local interactions

System still self-organizes to a critical state

Potential economic modeling of firms as evolving species

Abstract

In the present work we extend the Bak-Sneppen model for biological evolution by introducing local interactions between species. This ``environmental'' perturbation can modify the intrinsic fitness of each element of the ecology, leading to higher survival probability, even for the less fit. While the system still self-organizes toward a critical state, the distribution of fitness broadens, losing the classical step-function shape. A possible application in economics is discussed, where firms are represented like evolving species linked by mutual interests.