The mathematics of non-linear metrics for nested networks

Rui-Jie Wu, Gui-Yuan Shi, Yi-Cheng Zhang and Manuel Sebastian Mariani

Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 2016, vol. 460, issue C, 254-269

Abstract: Numerical analysis of data from international trade and ecological networks has shown that the non-linear fitness–complexity metric is the best candidate to rank nodes by importance in bipartite networks that exhibit a nested structure. Despite its relevance for real networks, the mathematical properties of the metric and its variants remain largely unexplored. Here, we perform an analytic and numeric study of the fitness–complexity metric and a new variant, called minimal extremal metric. We rigorously derive exact expressions for node scores for perfectly nested networks and show that these expressions explain the non-trivial convergence properties of the metrics. A comparison between the fitness–complexity metric and the minimal extremal metric on real data reveals that the latter can produce improved rankings if the input data are reliable.

Keywords: Nested networks; Non-linear metrics; fitness–complexity algorithm; Economic complexity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:460:y:2016:i:c:p:254-269

DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2016.05.023

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