  We study a modified version of a model previously proposed by Jackson and
Wolinsky to account for communicating information and allocating goods in
socioeconomic networks. In the model, the utility function of each node is
given by a weighted sum of contributions from all accessible nodes. The
weights, parameterized by the variable $\delta$, decrease with distance. We
introduce a growth mechanism where new nodes attach to the existing network
preferentially by utility. By increasing $\delta$, the network structure
evolves from a power-law to an exponential degree distribution, passing through
a regime characterised by shorter average path length, lower degree
assortativity and higher central point dominance. In the second part of the
paper we compare different network structures in terms of the average utility
received by each node. We show that power-law networks provide higher average
utility than Poisson random networks. This provides a possible justification
for the ubiquitousness of scale-free networks in the real world.
