Relationship between socioeconomic flows and social stocks: case study on Japanese air transportation

Abstract

This article analyses socioeconomic flows and social stocks using governmental statistics data on both air transportation and demographic and economic censuses from a holistic point of view. The network analysis of the Japanese air transportation network consists of 86 domestic airports with 476 connections. Betweenness centrality and PageRank are computed for the network structure. Furthermore, a relationship between socioeconomic flows (passengers and freight) and social stocks (population, the number of workers and the number of firms) is investigated based on governmental statistics data. To determine the relationship, a gravity model, which proposes that a socioeconomic flow between two places is proportional to a power-law relationship among social stocks around the places and their geodesic distance, is assumed. Parameters with the relationship for passengers and freight are estimated, and an adequate radius distance to compute social stocks around Japanese airports is determined. This result can be used to infer socioeconomic flows from social stocks.