The study of social networks is crucial to understanding economic development in lesser developed countries. Too often, the traditional approach to analyzing demographic behavior - with individuals acting independently with each other - does not fit in with real life trends. Hence, it is necessary to investigate decision making in social networks to fully understand the dynamics of a developing country.

In the paper entitled “Social Networks in Ghana” the connections amongst farmers in Ghana are examined. It is clearly shown that the level of knowledge that a farmer has of new technology is directly correlated to the number of relations that he has to other farmers with this information. We can consider this in the context of networks, where farmers are modeled as nodes, and the ties to other farmers as edges. The edges represent more than simply a friendship between two people. The more ‘edges’ that a farmer has, the more access he has to new resources and skills. Hence, the farmer can learn techniques from other successful farmers and become more profitable himself.

Economic development is also influenced by political power within a social network. In Southern Ghana, access to land is largely determined by social rank within a group. Those who have strong connections with leaders are likely to be able to fallow their land for a longer period of time. Women are more likely to support each other across other villages whereas men share the risk with extended male family members. We can model this network as being a triangular unbalanced network. The three nodes represent the leaders, women, and men of a village. Both women and men have weak ties to each other because they are busy competing and strengthening their weak ties to the heads of the village. Triadic closure is uncommon because strong ties with leadership are rare and exclusive. Hence security to land flows is entirely based upon the strengths of a farmer’s political connections and social authority in his local network.

http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/macarthur/inequality/papers/UdrySocialNetworksGhana.pdf