Hierarchical structures in the Gross Domestic Product per capita fluctuation in Latin American countries

REDELICO, FRANCISCO; PROTO, ARACELI; AUSLOOS, MARCEL

PHYSICA A - STATISTICAL AND THEORETICAL PHYSICS

ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2009 vol. 388 p. 3527 - 3535

0378-4371

A description of relations between the yearly fluctuations of the Gross Domestic Product(GDP) per capita of 19 Latin American (LA) countries is presented using either a linear (PCC)or a nonlinear correlation coefficient (NCC). Various time windows have been examinedto measure the weights giving rise to links used to built complex networks for which thecountries are nodes. The Average Overlap Index (AOI) for LA countries has been calculatedfor the two correlation coefficients showing that it is rather systematically higher than forthe 25 EU countries.The network structures are thereafter examined through a country elimination schemebased on the removal of the weakest links and raising the AOI threshold level. The PCC andNCC schemes lead to different networks and clusters.A Principal Component Analysis is furthermore made for the two here above definedadjacency matrices resulting from the PCC and NCC methods to represent and analyze thecountry clustering structure and observe their coherence from such points of view. It isconcluded that both PCC and NCC schemes lead to similar clustering though have a differentfeeling for the sign of correlations. Moreover the 19 LA countries seem to be less tied thanthe 25 EU.