> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.gdeltcloud.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# systemic_importance

> How much the wider system depends on the specific thing an event touched.

**Range 0–1.**

It scores **the node the event touched** — a named grid, port, firm or ministry — not how many countries are
mentioned and not how big the news was.

## Formula

```
systemic_importance = (size + interconnectedness + irreplaceability) / 3
```

Equal weights, deliberately. Basel's G-SIB methodology weights its five categories equally at 20% each and
the ECB/EBA O-SII framework uses four at 25%; both chose equal weighting because differential weights imply
precision about relative importance that the evidence does not support. The same logic applies here.

## Variables

| Variable             | In plain language                                                                                  |
| -------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `node`               | The specific thing touched. Named first, so the three scores below are about something concrete.   |
| `size`               | How much of the system that node accounts for. A national grid scores high; one branch office low. |
| `interconnectedness` | How many other things depend on it. Electricity feeds hospitals, transport and payments.           |
| `irreplaceability`   | How hard it is to substitute. A sole-source chokepoint scores high; one of many suppliers low.     |

## Grounding

Basel Committee **G-SIB** assessment methodology and the FSB's SIFI designations; the ECB/EBA **O-SII**
framework. **Our adaptation:** those regimes score *institutions* on balance-sheet data we do not have, so
we score the *node an event touched* on rubric anchors instead. That is a real difference — it is why this is
a rubric score, not a Basel score.

## Worked example

> Anthropic's \$1.5bn copyright settlement approved · CORPORATE · 15 articles
> node: *Anthropic and the generative-AI copyright/licensing ecosystem*

| Variable             | Value | Coder's reason                                                                            |
| -------------------- | ----- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `size`               | 0.70  | A major AI developer; reportedly the largest known U.S. copyright settlement of its kind. |
| `interconnectedness` | 0.70  | Claims span authors, publishers, copyrighted books and AI training practice.              |
| `irreplaceability`   | 0.30  | Important, but there are competing developers and alternative licensing arrangements.     |

```
(0.70 + 0.70 + 0.30) / 3 = 0.57
```

## Stability

Run-to-run noise **±0.036**; smallest defensible difference **0.07**.