This paper studies how information quality and network structure interact in a market where people choose who to follow. Suppliers decide whether to produce high- or low-quality information and earn revenue based on how many consumers see their content. Consumers choose who to follow among suppliers and peers and prefer to share and act on high-quality information. The main finding is that platform interventions which improve quality when the network is held fixed can shrink or reverse once users adjust who they follow. Verification tools, for example, make direct signals more informative, but this causes users to rely less on peer-based filtering, and if the peer network was doing most of the screening, quality can fall. I also show that consumers’ linking choices under cost asymmetry produce a core-periphery network structure: some become hubs by following many suppliers, while others rely on these hubs rather than subscribing directly. This concentration initially improves quality by routing content through informed users, but eventually harms quality when even low-quality content reaches almost everyone through the core. More broadly, information quality is highest at intermediate levels of social connectedness, recovering this result from fixed-network models through an endogenous mechanism. These results imply that the network response to policy is a central consideration for platform design.

Download

This paper investigates the impact of social network structure on the success of YouTube content creators within the commentary genre. Using data from the YouTube Data API, I focus on how creators’positions within the network correlate with measures of success, such as viewership and subscriber counts. I find degree and weighted degree centrality are correlated with success, suggesting the benefit of active network participation and quality network connections. Moreover, an on-camera presence enhances engagement, while gender and geographic differences have little effect, suggesting lower geographic and demographic barriers. Additionally, channel age and consistent content output are positively associated with creator success, indicating the importance of persistent engagement with audiences. On a structural level, the network is characterized by a core-periphery structure with slight homophily based on race, gender, and number of collaborations. This work offers significant implications for understanding digital content entrepreneurship and provides strategic insights for aspiring creators and platform governance.

Download‍ ‍SSRN