Complex Systems of Coordination: Mobility, Economic Networks, and Al

Abstract

Complex systems in the physical world, in society, and online all rely on coordination.This reliance is true for mobility infrastructures, for urban economies, and increasingly for production networks mediated by generative artificial intelligence. In each case, outcomes depend on how interdependent parts align, adjust to change, and occasionally fail. But because these systems are large, heterogeneous, and constantly evolving, it is difficultto identify which structures make coordination work well—and which conditions make it fragile.This dissertation uses large-scale, high-dimensional data to study coordination as a driver of system behavior across these domains. It develops empirical and computational tools that (i) detect systemic vulnerabilities, (ii) characterize how capabilities are organized within complex economies, and (iii) measure how new technologies reshape productivity and innovation. Across applications, the results show that specific patterns of interdependence can limit performance, while also highlighting points where targeted interventions can improve outcomes.The first set of contributions focuses on operational systems. I provide frameworks that trace how perturbations propagate through interdependencies and identify components whose misalignment can amplify cascading failures. The second contribution turns to economic systems over long historical horizons, introducing interpretable measures of internal coherence that capture structural constraints on how capabilities accumulate and coordinate. The final contribution develops scalable methods to study generative AI in global software production, quantifying adoption and linking it to changes in coordination, productivity, and the direction of technological exploration. Overall, the dissertation argues that coordination offers a useful and unifying lens for understanding how socio-technical systems are structured and how they evolve. By pairing methodological innovation with large-scale empirical analysis, it provides tools and evidence that can inform strategies for resilience, diversification, and more effective collaboration in the design of contemporary coordination architectures.