Abstract
The recent financial crisis illustrated the need for a thorough, functional
understanding of systemic risk in strongly interconnected financial structures.
Dynamic processes on complex networks being intrinsically difficult, most
recent studies of this problem have relied on numerical simulations. In this
paper, we report analytical results in a network model of interbank lending
based on directly relevant financial parameters such as interest rates and
leverage ratios. Using a mean-field approach, we obtain a closed-form formula
for the "critical degree", viz. the number of creditors per bank below which an
individual shock can cascade throughout the network. We relate the failures
distribution (probability that a single shock induces \$F\$ failures) to the
degree distribution (probability that a bank has \$k\$ creditors), showing in
particular that the former is fat-tailed whenever the latter is. Remarkably,
our criterion for the onset of contagion turns out to be isomorphic to a simple
rule for the evolution of cooperation on graphs and social networks, supporting
recent calls for a methodological rapprochement between finance and ecology.
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