Knowledge spillover processes as complex networks

We introduce the model of knowledge spillover on networks. Knowledge spillover is a major source of economic growth; and is a representative externality in economic phenomena. We show that the model has the following four characteristics: (1) the long-run growth rate is not relevant to the mean degree, but is determined by the mean degree of the nearest neighbors; (2) the productivity level of a firm is proportional to the degree of the firm; (3) the long-run growth rate increases with the increasing heterogeneity of the network; and (4) of three representative networks, the largest growth rate is in scale-free networks and the least in regular networks.