Literal social networks (not the internet thing, just systems of people who interact with each other) are quintessential reputation economies. They can be analy

Literal social networks (not the internet thing, just systems of people who interact with each other) are quintessential reputation economies. They can be analyzed, but there's a lot of fundamental differences with monetary economies. Reputation, unlike money, cannot be freely moved around the network: Alice thinking highly of me has no effect on my standing with Bob, unless there's some other link between Alice and Bob. Reputation also isn't nearly as conserved as currency: Asking for and receiving a favor (extracting value) from Bob can often strengthen the relationship, rather than deplete it, depending on the size of the ask and our existing rapport. And that's just some relatively surface level stuff. You can model relationships in economic terms, but it's a very different type of economy. Given how bad we are at modeling money economies, relationship dynamics are probably a lost cause.