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Commodity-specific triads in the Dutch inter-industry production network

Scientific Reports, vol. 14, pp. 3625

Abstract

Triadic motifs are the smallest building blocks of higher-order interactions in complex networks and can be detected as over-occurrences with respect to null models with only pair-wise interactions. Recently, the motif structure of production networks has attracted attention in light of its possible role in the propagation of economic shocks. However, its characterization at the level of individual commodities is still poorly understood. Here we analyze both binary and weighted triadic motifs in the Dutch inter-industry production network disaggregated at the level of 187 commodity groups, which Statistics Netherlands reconstructed from National Accounts registers, surveys and known empirical data. We introduce appropriate null models that filter out node heterogeneity and the strong effects of link reciprocity and find that, while the aggregate network that overlays all products is characterized by a multitude of triadic motifs, most single-product layers feature no significant motif, and roughly 85% of the layers feature only two motifs or less. This result paves the way for identifying a simple 'triadic fingerprint' of each commodity and for reconstructing most product-specific networks from partial information in a pairwise fashion by controlling for their reciprocity structure. We discuss how these results can help statistical bureaus identify fine-grained information in structural analyses of interest for policymakers.

Authors 3

  1. Leiden University · Scuola Normale Superiore · IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca

    Affiliation as printed

    IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca, P.zza San Francesco 19, 55100, Lucca, Italy. marzio.divece@imtlucca.it

    Lorentz Institute for Theoretical Physics, Leiden University, Niels Bohrweg 2, 2333CA, Leiden, The Netherlands. marzio.divece@imtlucca.it

    Scuola Normale Superiore, P.zza dei Cavalieri 7, Pisa, Italy. marzio.divece@imtlucca.it

    IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca, P.zza San Francesco 19, 55100, Lucca, Italy

  2. University of Amsterdam · Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek

    Affiliation as printed

    Korteweg-de Vries Institute for Mathematics, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Statistics Netherlands, Henri Faasdreef 312, 2492 JP, Den Haag, The Netherlands

  3. Leiden University · IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca · Istituto Nazionale di Alta Matematica Francesco Severi

    Affiliation as printed

    IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca, P.zza San Francesco 19, 55100, Lucca, Italy

    INdAM-GNAMPA Istituto Nazionale di Alta Matematica, Rome, Italy

    Lorentz Institute for Theoretical Physics, Leiden University, Niels Bohrweg 2, 2333CA, Leiden, The Netherlands

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References 84