IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/phsmap/v450y2016icp305-316.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Architectures engender crises: The emergence of power laws in social networks

Author

Listed:
  • Tohmé, Fernando
  • Larrosa, Juan M.C.

Abstract

Recent financial crises posed a number of questions. The most salient were related to the cogency of derivatives and other sophisticated hedging instruments. One claim is that all those instruments rely heavily on the assumption that events in the world are guided by normal distributions while, instead, all the evidence shows that they actually follow fat-tailed power laws. Our conjecture is that it is the very financial architecture that engenders extreme events. Not on purpose but just because of its complexity. That is, the system has an internal connection structure that is able to propagate and enhance initially small disturbances. The final outcome ends up not being correlated with its triggering event. To support this claim, we appeal to the intuition drawn from the behavior of social networks. Most of the interesting cases constitute scale-free structures. In particular, we contend, those that arise from strategic decisions of the agents.

Suggested Citation

  • Tohmé, Fernando & Larrosa, Juan M.C., 2016. "Architectures engender crises: The emergence of power laws in social networks," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 450(C), pages 305-316.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:450:y:2016:i:c:p:305-316
    DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2015.12.116
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S037843711501153X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only. Journal offers the option of making the article available online on Science direct for a fee of $3,000
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.physa.2015.12.116?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fariba Karimi & Matthias Raddant, 2016. "Cascades in Real Interbank Markets," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 47(1), pages 49-66, January.
    2. Soramäki, Kimmo & Bech, Morten L. & Arnold, Jeffrey & Glass, Robert J. & Beyeler, Walter E., 2007. "The topology of interbank payment flows," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 379(1), pages 317-333.
    3. Matthew Elliott & Benjamin Golub & Matthew O. Jackson, 2014. "Financial Networks and Contagion," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(10), pages 3115-3153, October.
    4. Di Guilmi, C. & Gallegati, M. & Landini, S., 2008. "Economic dynamics with financial fragility and mean-field interaction: A model," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 387(15), pages 3852-3861.
    5. Kyu-Min Lee & Jae-Suk Yang & Gunn Kim & Jaesung Lee & Kwang-Il Goh & In-mook Kim, 2011. "Impact of the Topology of Global Macroeconomic Network on the Spreading of Economic Crises," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 6(3), pages 1-11, March.
    6. Venkatesh Bala & Sanjeev Goyal, 2000. "A Noncooperative Model of Network Formation," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 68(5), pages 1181-1230, September.
    7. Hawkins, Raymond J., 2011. "Lending sociodynamics and economic instability," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 390(23), pages 4355-4369.
    8. Kyu-Min Lee & Jae-Suk Yang & Gunn Kim & Jaesung Lee & Kwang-Il Goh & In-mook Kim, 2010. "Impact of the topology of global macroeconomic network on the spreading of economic crises," Papers 1011.4336, arXiv.org, revised Apr 2011.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chakrabarti, Anindya S., 2018. "Dispersion in macroeconomic volatility between the core and periphery of the international trade network," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 31-50.
    2. Liu, Anqi & Paddrik, Mark & Yang, Steve Y. & Zhang, Xingjia, 2020. "Interbank contagion: An agent-based model approach to endogenously formed networks," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    3. Jackson, Matthew O. & Zenou, Yves, 2015. "Games on Networks," Handbook of Game Theory with Economic Applications,, Elsevier.
    4. Eboli, Mario, 2019. "A flow network analysis of direct balance-sheet contagion in financial networks," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 205-233.
    5. Marco Bardoscia & Fabio Caccioli & Juan Ignacio Perotti & Gianna Vivaldo & Guido Caldarelli, 2016. "Distress Propagation in Complex Networks: The Case of Non-Linear DebtRank," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(10), pages 1-12, October.
    6. Leonidas Sandoval Junior, 2014. "Dynamics in two networks based on stocks of the US stock market," Papers 1408.1728, arXiv.org, revised Aug 2014.
    7. Kyu-Min Lee & Kwang-Il Goh, 2016. "Strength of weak layers in cascading failures on multiplex networks: case of the international trade network," Papers 1603.05181, arXiv.org, revised May 2016.
    8. Spiros Bougheas, 2017. "Contagion in stable networks," Discussion Papers 2017/08, University of Nottingham, Centre for Finance, Credit and Macroeconomics (CFCM).
    9. Tamás Sebestyén & Dóra Longauer, 2018. "Network structure, equilibrium and dynamics in a monopolistically competitive economy," Netnomics, Springer, vol. 19(3), pages 131-157, December.
    10. Hossein Dastkhan, 2021. "Network‐based early warning system to predict financial crisis," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(1), pages 594-616, January.
    11. Cohen-Cole, Ethan & Patacchini, Eleonora & Zenou, Yves, 2015. "Static and dynamic networks in interbank markets," Network Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 3(1), pages 98-123, March.
    12. Liu, Litao & Cao, Zhi & Liu, Xiaojie & Shi, Lei & Cheng, Shengkui & Liu, Gang, 2020. "Oil security revisited: An assessment based on complex network analysis," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 194(C).
    13. Lester, Benjamin & Weill, Pierre-Olivier & Hugonnier, Julien, 2022. "Heterogeneity in decentralized asset markets," Theoretical Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 17(3), July.
    14. Kang, Xinyu & Wang, Minxi & Chen, Lu & Li, Xin, 2023. "Supply risk propagation of global copper industry chain based on multi-layer complex network," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 85(PA).
    15. Craig, Ben & von Peter, Goetz, 2014. "Interbank tiering and money center banks," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 322-347.
    16. Hübler, Michael, 2016. "A new trade network theory: What economists can learn from engineers," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 115-126.
    17. Yuichi Ikeda & Hiroshi Iyetomi, 2018. "Trade network reconstruction and simulation with changes in trade policy," Evolutionary and Institutional Economics Review, Springer, vol. 15(2), pages 495-513, December.
    18. Zhou, Xuanru & Zhang, Hua & Zheng, Shuxian & Xing, Wanli & Yang, Hanshi & Zhao, Yifan, 2023. "A study on the transmission of trade behavior of global nickel products from the perspective of the industrial chain," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    19. Leonidas Sandoval Junior, 2011. "A Map of the Brazilian Stock Market," Papers 1107.4146, arXiv.org, revised Mar 2013.
    20. , D. & Tessone, Claudio J. & ,, 2014. "Nestedness in networks: A theoretical model and some applications," Theoretical Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 9(3), September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:450:y:2016:i:c:p:305-316. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/physica-a-statistical-mechpplications/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.