A Dynamic Stochastic Block Model for Multidimensional Networks

Ovielt Baltodano L\'opez and Roberto Casarin

Papers from arXiv.org

Abstract: The availability of relational data can offer new insights into the functioning of the economy. Nevertheless, modeling the dynamics in network data with multiple types of relationships is still a challenging issue. Stochastic block models provide a parsimonious and flexible approach to network analysis. We propose a new stochastic block model for multidimensional networks, where layer-specific hidden Markov-chain processes drive the changes in community formation. The changes in the block membership of a node in a given layer may be influenced by its own past membership in other layers. This allows for clustering overlap, clustering decoupling, or more complex relationships between layers, including settings of unidirectional, or bidirectional, non-linear Granger block causality. We address the overparameterization issue of a saturated specification by assuming a Multi-Laplacian prior distribution within a Bayesian framework. Data augmentation and Gibbs sampling are used to make the inference problem more tractable. Through simulations, we show that standard linear models and the pairwise approach are unable to detect block causality in most scenarios. In contrast, our model can recover the true Granger causality structure. As an application to international trade, we show that our model offers a unified framework, encompassing community detection and Gravity equation modeling. We found new evidence of block Granger causality of trade agreements and flows and core-periphery structure in both layers on a large sample of countries.

Date: 2022-09, Revised 2025-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cmp and nep-net
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://arxiv.org/pdf/2209.09354 Latest version (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:arx:papers:2209.09354

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Papers from arXiv.org
Bibliographic data for series maintained by arXiv administrators ().