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Directed or Undirected? A New Index to Check for Directionality of Relations in Socio-Economic Networks

Author

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  • Giorgio Fagiolo

    (Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies)

Abstract

This paper proposes a simple procedure to decide whether the empirically-observed adjacency or weights matrix, which characterizes the graph underlying a socio-economic network, is sufficiently symmetric (respectively, asymmetric) to justify an undirected (respectively, directed) network analysis. We introduce a new index that satisfies two main properties. First, it can be applied to both binary or weighted graphs. Second, once suitably standardized, it distributes as a standard normal over all possible adjacency/weights matrices. To test the index in practice, we present an application that employs a set of well-known empirically-observed social and economic networks.

Suggested Citation

  • Giorgio Fagiolo, 2006. "Directed or Undirected? A New Index to Check for Directionality of Relations in Socio-Economic Networks," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 3(34), pages 1-12.
  • Handle: RePEc:ebl:ecbull:eb-06z10134
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dorogovtsev, S.N. & Mendes, J.F.F., 2003. "Evolution of Networks: From Biological Nets to the Internet and WWW," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198515906, Decembrie.
    2. Garlaschelli, Diego & Loffredo, Maria I., 2005. "Structure and evolution of the world trade network," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 355(1), pages 138-144.
    3. D. Garlaschelli & M. I. Loffredo, 2005. "Structure and Evolution of the World Trade Network," Papers physics/0502066, arXiv.org, revised May 2005.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Giorgio Fagiolo & Javier Reyes & Stefano Schiavo, 2010. "The evolution of the world trade web: a weighted-network analysis," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 20(4), pages 479-514, August.
    2. Fagiolo, Giorgio & Reyes, Javier & Schiavo, Stefano, 2008. "On the topological properties of the world trade web: A weighted network analysis," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 387(15), pages 3868-3873.
    3. Chinazzi, Matteo & Fagiolo, Giorgio & Reyes, Javier A. & Schiavo, Stefano, 2013. "Post-mortem examination of the international financial network," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 37(8), pages 1692-1713.
    4. Stefano Schiavo & Javier Reyes & Giorgio Fagiolo, 2010. "International trade and financial integration: a weighted network analysis," Quantitative Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(4), pages 389-399.
    5. repec:spo:wpecon:info:hdl:2441/9795 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Arribas, Iván & Peiró-Palomino, Jesús & Tortosa-Ausina, Emili, 2020. "Is full banking integration desirable?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    7. Assaf Almog & Rhys Bird & Diego Garlaschelli, 2015. "Enhanced Gravity Model of trade: reconciling macroeconomic and network models," Papers 1506.00348, arXiv.org, revised Feb 2019.
    8. Javier Reyes & Stefano Schiavo & Giorgio Fagiolo, 2010. "Using complex networks analysis to assess the evolution of international economic integration: The cases of East Asia and Latin America," The Journal of International Trade & Economic Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(2), pages 215-239.
    9. Belén González Díaz & Leticia Blázquez, 2013. "International Automotive Production Networks: How the web comes together," Working Papers. Serie EC 2013-05, Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Económicas, S.A. (Ivie).
    10. Sanhita Sucharita, 2013. "Factors Affecting Female Labor Force Participation in India," Romanian Economic Journal, Department of International Business and Economics from the Academy of Economic Studies Bucharest, vol. 16(48), pages 155-178, June.
    11. Eliza-Olivia Lungu, 2013. "Connections between Frontier Markets," Romanian Economic Journal, Department of International Business and Economics from the Academy of Economic Studies Bucharest, vol. 16(48), pages 121-140, June.
    12. Clemente, G.P. & Grassi, R., 2018. "Directed clustering in weighted networks: A new perspective," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 26-38.
    13. Giorgio Fagiolo & Tiziano Squartini & Diego Garlaschelli, 2013. "Null models of economic networks: the case of the world trade web," Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination, Springer;Society for Economic Science with Heterogeneous Interacting Agents, vol. 8(1), pages 75-107, April.
    14. Fagiolo, Giorgio & Santoni, Gianluca, 2015. "Human-mobility networks, country income, and labor productivity," Network Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 3(3), pages 377-407, September.
    15. repec:hal:wpspec:info:hdl:2441/9795 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/9795 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Javier Reyes & Giorgio Fagiolo & Stefano Schiavo, 2008. "Using a complex weighted-network approach to assess the evolution of international economic integration: The cases of East Asia and Latin America," LEM Papers Series 2008/10, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
    18. Charlie Joyez, 2017. "Network Structure of French Multinational Firms," Working Papers DT/2017/08, DIAL (Développement, Institutions et Mondialisation).
    19. Giorgio Fagiolo & Javier Reyes & Stefano Schiavo, 2007. "The Evolution of the World Trade Web," LEM Papers Series 2007/17, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
    20. Iván Arribas & Francisco Pérez & Emili Tortosa-Ausina, 2014. "The dynamics of international trade integration: 1967–2004," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 46(1), pages 19-41, February.
    21. Hoppe, K. & Rodgers, G.J., 2015. "A microscopic study of the fitness-dependent topology of the world trade network," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 419(C), pages 64-74.
    22. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/9837 is not listed on IDEAS
    23. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/6122 is not listed on IDEAS
    24. Cerqueti, Roy & Clemente, Gian Paolo & Grassi, Rosanna, 2021. "Stratified cohesiveness in complex business networks," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 515-526.

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    JEL classification:

    • C6 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling
    • C1 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General

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