Prominence and control: The weighted rich-club effect

Complex systems are often characterized by large-scale hierarchical organizations. Whether the prominent elements, at the top of the hierarchy, share and control resources or avoid one another lies at the heart of a system's global organization and functioning. Inspired by network perspectives, we propose a new general framework for studying the tendency of prominent elements to form clubs with exclusive control over the majority of a system's resources. We explore associations between prominence and control in the fields of transportation, scientific collaboration, and online communication.