  We study the role of imitation within a model of economics with adaptive
agents. The basic ingredients are those of the Minority Game. We add the
possibility of local information exchange and imitation of the neighbour's
strategy. Imitators should pay a fee to the imitated. Connected groups are
formed, which act as if they were single players. Coherent spatial areas of
rich and poor agents result, leading to the decrease of local social tensions.
Size and stability of these areas depends on the parameters of the model.
Global performance measured by the attendance volatility is optimised at
certain value of the imitation probability. The social tensions are suppressed
for large imitation probability, but due to the price paid by the imitators the
requirements of high global effectivity and low social tensions are in
conflict, as well as the requirements of low global and low local wealth
differences.

Statistical Mechanics;Disordered Systems and Neural Networks