Effect of network size on comparing different stock networks

PLoS One. 2023 Dec 14;18(12):e0288733. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0288733. eCollection 2023.

Abstract

We analyzed complex networks generated by the threshold method in the Korean and Indian stock markets during the non-crisis period of 2004 and the crisis period of 2008, while varying the size of the system. To create the stock network, we randomly selected N stock indices from the market and constructed the network based on cross-correlation among the time series of stock prices. We computed the average shortest path length L and average clustering coefficient C for several ensembles of generated stock networks and found that both metrics are influenced by network size. Since L and C are affected by network size N, a direct comparison of graph measures between stock networks with different numbers of nodes could lead to erroneous conclusions. However, we observed that the dependency of network measures on N is significantly reduced when comparing larger networks with normalized shortest path lengths. Additionally, we discovered that the effect of network size on network measures during the crisis period is almost negligible compared to the non-crisis periods.

MeSH terms

  • Models, Economic*
  • Time Factors

Grants and funding

National Research Foundation of Korea NRF-2020R1A2C1005334 Professor Jae Woo Lee Noakhali science and Technology University NSTU/RC-CS-01/T-23/43 Kamrul Hasan Tuhin Ashadun Nobi Md. Jafar Sadique Mahmudul Islam Rakib.