Detecting overlapping community structure: Estonian network of payments

Abstract

Revealing the community structure exhibited by real networks is a fundamental phase towards a comprehensive understanding of complex systems beyond the local organization of their components. Community detection techniques help on providing insights into understanding the local organization of the components of networks. In this study we identify and investigate the overlapping community structure of an interesting and unique case of study: the Estonian network of payments. In order to perform the study, we use the Clique Percolation Method and explore statistical distribution functions of the communities, where in most cases we found scale-free properties. In this network the nodes represent Estonian companies and the links represent payments done between the companies. Our study adds to the literature of complex networks by presenting the first overlapping community detection analysis of a country's network of payments.