Ctancy of 50, the absolute difference between the two is 20 which represents low similarity when compared to the United Kingdom’s life expectancy of 72 for this indicator. In Fig 9, we can observe the variations in similarity for countries with different levels of community multiplexity. What is immediately striking is that countries that share a maximal number of communities and therefore exhibit the greatest community multiplexity, have the Ixazomib citrateMedChemExpress Ixazomib citrate smallest margin of difference across all indicators. This suggests that countries with the highest community multiplexity have a very AZD1722 web similar socioeconomic profile. This is confirmed by a two-sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov test between the distributions of differences in each indicator for pairs sharing different numbers of communities. Although the KS statistic is lower between groups sharing 0 and 1 communities (apx. 0.1 for all indicators and p-value <0.01), it is very high for groups between 1 and 6 communities (0.4 and above, p-value <0.01), except for mobile phone penetration (detailed KS test results are presented in S1 Table).PLOS ONE | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0155976 June 1,15 /The International Postal Network and Other Global Flows as Proxies for National WellbeingFig 9. Socioeconomic difference margin between countries who share communities in the global flow networks. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0155976.gFurther to this observation, in most indicators there is a very strong significance in the level of community multiplexity--the higher the community multiplexity index between two countries, the smaller the difference between their socioeconomic profiles. There are notable exceptions to this such as the mobile phone penetration ratio, where it appears that beyond the highest level of multiplexity, all other countries are relatively similar in this aspect with low variation even for those pairs of countries which share no communities. For all other indicators such as GDP, Literacy ratio, HDI and Internet penetration, there is a dramatic increase in similarity past a community multiplexity of 3. Ultimately, these similarities can be used to estimate the wellbeing of countries for which it is unknown but can be estimated from its neighbours.DiscussionBig data is often related to real-time data captured through the Internet or social networks. However, the digital divide makes access to big data insights for development more challenging in the least developed and many developing and emerging countries. Can we rely on other networks to overcome these critical data gaps in view of better measuring and monitoring developmental progress? This is particularly important following the United Nations adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) in September 2015, made of 17 goals, 169 targets and almost 200 universal indicators, each of them calling for regular and increasingly disaggregated monitoring in every country during the 2016?0 period. This commitment invites a nuanced discussion on the nature and importance of measurement, inference and triangulation of data sources. This discussion is particularly prescient in the face of complex intertwined developmental challenges in an age of increased globalisation, economic interdependence and climate change. The work presented above has clearly shown the value of measuring, comparing, and combining metrics of global connectivity across six different global networks in order to approximate socioeconomic indicators and to identify network communities.Ctancy of 50, the absolute difference between the two is 20 which represents low similarity when compared to the United Kingdom's life expectancy of 72 for this indicator. In Fig 9, we can observe the variations in similarity for countries with different levels of community multiplexity. What is immediately striking is that countries that share a maximal number of communities and therefore exhibit the greatest community multiplexity, have the smallest margin of difference across all indicators. This suggests that countries with the highest community multiplexity have a very similar socioeconomic profile. This is confirmed by a two-sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov test between the distributions of differences in each indicator for pairs sharing different numbers of communities. Although the KS statistic is lower between groups sharing 0 and 1 communities (apx. 0.1 for all indicators and p-value <0.01), it is very high for groups between 1 and 6 communities (0.4 and above, p-value <0.01), except for mobile phone penetration (detailed KS test results are presented in S1 Table).PLOS ONE | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0155976 June 1,15 /The International Postal Network and Other Global Flows as Proxies for National WellbeingFig 9. Socioeconomic difference margin between countries who share communities in the global flow networks. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0155976.gFurther to this observation, in most indicators there is a very strong significance in the level of community multiplexity--the higher the community multiplexity index between two countries, the smaller the difference between their socioeconomic profiles. There are notable exceptions to this such as the mobile phone penetration ratio, where it appears that beyond the highest level of multiplexity, all other countries are relatively similar in this aspect with low variation even for those pairs of countries which share no communities. For all other indicators such as GDP, Literacy ratio, HDI and Internet penetration, there is a dramatic increase in similarity past a community multiplexity of 3. Ultimately, these similarities can be used to estimate the wellbeing of countries for which it is unknown but can be estimated from its neighbours.DiscussionBig data is often related to real-time data captured through the Internet or social networks. However, the digital divide makes access to big data insights for development more challenging in the least developed and many developing and emerging countries. Can we rely on other networks to overcome these critical data gaps in view of better measuring and monitoring developmental progress? This is particularly important following the United Nations adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) in September 2015, made of 17 goals, 169 targets and almost 200 universal indicators, each of them calling for regular and increasingly disaggregated monitoring in every country during the 2016?0 period. This commitment invites a nuanced discussion on the nature and importance of measurement, inference and triangulation of data sources. This discussion is particularly prescient in the face of complex intertwined developmental challenges in an age of increased globalisation, economic interdependence and climate change. The work presented above has clearly shown the value of measuring, comparing, and combining metrics of global connectivity across six different global networks in order to approximate socioeconomic indicators and to identify network communities.
