Random Intersection Graphs and Missing Data

Random-graphs and statistical inference with missing data are two separate topics that have been widely explored each in its field. In this paper we demonstrate the relationship between these two different topics and take a novel view of the data matrix as a random intersection graph. We use graph properties and theoretical results from random-graph theory, such as connectivity and the emergence of the giant component, to identify two threshold phenomena in statistical inference with missing data: loss of identifiability and slower convergence of algorithms that are pertinent to statistical inference such as expectation-maximization (EM). We provide two examples corresponding to these threshold phenomena and illustrate the theoretical predictions with simulations that are consistent with our reduction.