2003/09/25 by Michael Boss, Boss, Michael, Helmut Elsinger +5 · 2 citations
Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Physics and Astronomy · #Complex Network Analysis Techniques #Complex Systems and Time Series Analysis #Condensed Matter (cond-mat) #FOS: Physical sciences #cond-mat
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.cond-mat/0309582
5 pages 3 eps figures
arxiv created 2003/09/25 · openalex publication_date 2003/09/25 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We provide an empirical analysis of the network structure of the Austrian interbank market based on a unique data set of the Oesterreichische Nationalbank (OeNB). We show that the contract size distribution follows a power law over more than 3 decades. By using a novel ''dissimilarity'' measure we find that the interbank network shows a community structure that exactly mirrors the regional and sectoral organization of the actual Austrian banking system. The degree distribution of the interbank network shows two different power law exponents which are one-to-one related to two sub-network structures, differing in the degree of hierarchical organization. The banking network moreover shares typical structural features known in numerous complex real world networks: a low clustering coefficient and a relatively short average shortest path length. These empirical findings are in marked contrast to interbank networks that have been analyzed in the theoretical economic and econo-physics literature.