title: Power laws and fragility in flow networks.
abstract: What makes economic and ecological networks so unlike other highly skewed networks in their tendency toward turbulence and collapse? Here, we explore the consequences of a defining feature of these networks: their nodes are tied together by flow. We show that flow networks tend to the power law degree distribution (PLDD) due to a self-reinforcing process involving position within the global network structure, and thus present the first random graph model for PLDDs that does not depend on a rich-get-richer function of nodal degree. We also show that in contrast to non-flow networks, PLDD flow networks are dramatically more vulnerable to catastrophic failure than non-PLDD flow networks, a finding with potential explanatory power in our age of resource- and financial-interdependence and turbulence.
authors.affiliation: Boston University School of Management, Department of Information Systems, Boston, MA, United States.
authors.forename: Jesse
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Shore
authors.affiliation: Massachusetts General Hospital, Department of Neurology, United States ; Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States.
authors.forename: Catherine J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Chu
authors.affiliation: Massachusetts General Hospital, Department of Neurology, United States ; Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States.
authors.forename: Matt T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Bianchi
keywords: Degree distribution; Flow networks; Network collapse; Network dynamics; Network evolution; Power law; Resource networks