A Graphon-based Framework for Modeling Large Networks

This thesis focuses on a new graphon-based approach for fitting models to large networks and establishes a general framework for incorporating nodal attributes to modeling. The scale of network data nowadays, renders classical network modeling and inference inappropriate. Novel modeling strategies are required as well as estimation methods. Depending on whether the model structure is specified a priori or solely determined from data, existing models for networks can be classified as parametric and non-parametric. Compared to the former, a non-parametric model often allows for an easier and more straightforward estimation procedure of the network structure. On the other hand, the connectivities and dynamics of networks fitted by non-parametric models can be quite difficult to interpret, as compared to parametric models. In this thesis, we first propose a computational estimation procedure for a class of parametric models that are among the most widely used models for networks, built upon tools from non-parametric models with practical innovations that make it efficient and capable of scaling to large networks. Extensions of this base method are then considered in two directions. Ins