Predicting affinity ties in a surname network

PLoS One. 2021 Sep 2;16(9):e0256603. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0256603. eCollection 2021.

Abstract

From administrative registers of last names in Santiago, Chile, we create a surname affinity network that encodes socioeconomic data. This network is a multi-relational graph with nodes representing surnames and edges representing the prevalence of interactions between surnames by socioeconomic decile. We model the prediction of links as a knowledge base completion problem, and find that sharing neighbors is highly predictive of the formation of new links. Importantly, We distinguish between grounded neighbors and neighbors in the embedding space, and find that the latter is more predictive of tie formation. The paper discusses the implications of this finding in explaining the high levels of elite endogamy in Santiago.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Chile
  • Consanguinity
  • Data Mining / statistics & numerical data*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Machine Learning*
  • Male
  • Names*
  • Pedigree*
  • Social Class

Grants and funding

Marcelo Mendoza and Naim Bro acknowledge funding support from the Millennium Institute for Foundational Research on Data. Marcelo Mendoza was funded by the National Agency of Research and Development (ANID) grants Programa de Investigaci\’on Asociativa (PIA) AFB180002 and Fondo Nacional de Desarrollo Cient\’ifico y Tecnol\’ogico (FONDECYT) 1200211.