5 research outputs found
Evolution of community structure in the world trade web
In this note we study the bilateral merchandise trade flows between 186
countries over the 1948-2005 period using data from the International Monetary
Fund. We use Pajek to identify network structure and behavior across thresholds
and over time. In particular, we focus on the evolution of trade "islands" in
the a world trade network in which countries are linked with directed edges
weighted according to fraction of total dollars sent from one country to
another. We find mixed evidence for globalization.Comment: To be submitted to APFA 6 Proceedings, 8 pages, 3 Figure
The International-Trade Network: Gravity Equations and Topological Properties
This paper begins to explore the determinants of the topological properties
of the international - trade network (ITN). We fit bilateral-trade flows using
a standard gravity equation to build a "residual" ITN where trade-link weights
are depurated from geographical distance, size, border effects, trade
agreements, and so on. We then compare the topological properties of the
original and residual ITNs. We find that the residual ITN displays, unlike the
original one, marked signatures of a complex system, and is characterized by a
very different topological architecture. Whereas the original ITN is
geographically clustered and organized around a few large-sized hubs, the
residual ITN displays many small-sized but trade-oriented countries that,
independently of their geographical position, either play the role of local
hubs or attract large and rich countries in relatively complex
trade-interaction patterns
The rise of China in the international trade network: a community core detection approach
Theory of complex networks proved successful in the description of a variety of static networks ranging from biology to computer and social sciences and to economics and
finance. Here we use network models to describe the evolution of a particular economic system, namely the International Trade Network (ITN). Previous studies often assume that globalization and regionalization in international trade are contradictory to each other. We re-examine the relationship between globalization and regionalization by viewing the international trade system as an interdependent complex network. We use the modularity optimization method to detect communities and community cores in the ITN during the years 1995-2011. We find rich dynamics over time both inter- and intra-communities. Most importantly, we have a multilevel description of the
evolution where the global dynamics (i.e., communities disappear or reemerge) tend to be correlated with the regional dynamics (i.e., community core changes between
community members). In particular, the Asia-Oceania community disappeared and reemerged over time along with a switch in leadership from Japan to China. Moreover,
simulation results show that the global dynamics can be generated by a preferential attachment mechanism both inter- and intra- communities