Entropy as a measure of centrality in networks characterized by path-transfer flow

Abstract Recently, Borgatti [Borgatti, S.P., 2005. Centrality and network flow. Social Networks 27, 55–71] proposed a taxonomy of centrality measures based on the way that traffic flows through the network—whether over path, geodesic, trail, or walk, and whether by means of transfer, serial duplication, or parallel duplication. Most of the extant centrality measures assume that traffic propagates via parallel duplication or, alternatively, that it travels over geodesics. Few of the other flow possibilities have centrality measures associated with them. This article proposes an entropy-based measure of centrality appropriate for traffic that propagates by transfer and flows along paths. The proposed measure can be applied to most network types, whether binary or weighted, directed or undirected, connected or disconnected. The measure is illustrated on the gang alliance network of Kennedy et al. [Kennedy, D.M., Braga, A. A., Piehl, A.M., 1998. The (un)known universe: mapping gangs and gang violence in Boston. Crime Prevention Studies 8, 219–262].

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