Chain-referral sampling on stochastic block models

DOI10.1051/PS/2020025MaRDI QIDQ5140339zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Thi Phuong Thuy Vo

Publication date 15 December 2020

Published in ESAIM: Probability and Statistics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Copyright license Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1902.04990

zbMATH Keywords

chain-referral samplingexploration processlarge graph limitrandom graphrespondent driven samplingsocial networkstochastic block model

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Random graphs (graph-theoretic aspects) (05C80) Functional limit theorems; invariance principles (60F17) Discrete-time Markov processes on general state spaces (60J05) Stochastic network models in operations research (90B15) Social networks; opinion dynamics (91D30)

Abstract: The discovery of the "hidden population", whose size and membership are unknown, is made possible by assuming that its members are connected in a social network by their relationships. We explore these groups by a chain-referral sampling (CRS) method, where participants recommend the people they know. This leads to the study of a Markov chain on a random graph where vertices represent individuals and edges connecting any two nodes describe the relationships between corresponding people. We are interested in the study of CRS process on the stochastic block model (SBM), which extends the well-known Erd"os-R'enyi graphs to populations partitioned into communities. The SBM considered here is characterized by a number of vertices $N$, a number of communities (blocks) $m$, proportion of each community $pi=(p{i}_1,\mathrm{...},p{i}_m)$ and a pattern for connection between blocks $P=(lambd{a}_{kl}/N{)}_{(k,l)in{1,\mathrm{...},m}^2}$. In this paper, we give a precise description of the dynamic of CRS process in discrete time on an SBM. The difficulty lies in handling the heterogeneity of the graph. We prove that when the population's size is large, the normalized stochastic process of the referral chain behaves like a deterministic curve which is the unique solution of a system of ODEs.

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Cited in

(2)

• Estimation of dense stochastic block models visited by random walks
• Respondent-driven sampling on sparse Erdös-Rényi graphs

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