Sampling and inference for beta neutral-to-the-left models of sparse networks

Empirical evidence suggests that heavy-tailed degree distributions occurring in many real networks are well-approximated by power laws with exponents η that may take values either less than and greater than two. Models based on various forms of exchangeability are able to capture power laws with η &...

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Main Authors: Bloem-Reddy, B, Foster, A, Mathieu, E, Teh, Y
Format: Conference item
Published: AUAI Press 2018
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author Bloem-Reddy, B
Foster, A
Mathieu, E
Teh, Y
author_facet Bloem-Reddy, B
Foster, A
Mathieu, E
Teh, Y
author_sort Bloem-Reddy, B
collection OXFORD
description Empirical evidence suggests that heavy-tailed degree distributions occurring in many real networks are well-approximated by power laws with exponents η that may take values either less than and greater than two. Models based on various forms of exchangeability are able to capture power laws with η < 2, and admit tractable inference algorithms; we draw on previous results to show that η > 2 cannot be generated by the forms of exchangeability used in existing random graph models. Preferential attachment models generate power law exponents greater than two, but have been of limited use as statistical models due to the inherent difficulty of performing inference in non-exchangeable models. Motivated by this gap, we design and implement inference algorithms for a recently proposed class of models that generates η of all possible values. We show that although they are not exchangeable, these models have probabilistic structure amenable to inference. Our methods make a large class of previously intractable models useful for statistical inference.
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spelling oxford-uuid:49598f78-0691-4281-86c5-895a26a62b922022-03-26T15:31:05ZSampling and inference for beta neutral-to-the-left models of sparse networksConference itemhttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_5794uuid:49598f78-0691-4281-86c5-895a26a62b92Symplectic Elements at OxfordAUAI Press2018Bloem-Reddy, BFoster, AMathieu, ETeh, YEmpirical evidence suggests that heavy-tailed degree distributions occurring in many real networks are well-approximated by power laws with exponents η that may take values either less than and greater than two. Models based on various forms of exchangeability are able to capture power laws with η < 2, and admit tractable inference algorithms; we draw on previous results to show that η > 2 cannot be generated by the forms of exchangeability used in existing random graph models. Preferential attachment models generate power law exponents greater than two, but have been of limited use as statistical models due to the inherent difficulty of performing inference in non-exchangeable models. Motivated by this gap, we design and implement inference algorithms for a recently proposed class of models that generates η of all possible values. We show that although they are not exchangeable, these models have probabilistic structure amenable to inference. Our methods make a large class of previously intractable models useful for statistical inference.
spellingShingle Bloem-Reddy, B
Foster, A
Mathieu, E
Teh, Y
Sampling and inference for beta neutral-to-the-left models of sparse networks
title Sampling and inference for beta neutral-to-the-left models of sparse networks
title_full Sampling and inference for beta neutral-to-the-left models of sparse networks
title_fullStr Sampling and inference for beta neutral-to-the-left models of sparse networks
title_full_unstemmed Sampling and inference for beta neutral-to-the-left models of sparse networks
title_short Sampling and inference for beta neutral-to-the-left models of sparse networks
title_sort sampling and inference for beta neutral to the left models of sparse networks
work_keys_str_mv AT bloemreddyb samplingandinferenceforbetaneutraltotheleftmodelsofsparsenetworks
AT fostera samplingandinferenceforbetaneutraltotheleftmodelsofsparsenetworks
AT mathieue samplingandinferenceforbetaneutraltotheleftmodelsofsparsenetworks
AT tehy samplingandinferenceforbetaneutraltotheleftmodelsofsparsenetworks