Features and Evolution of Global Energy Trade Patterns from the Perspective of Complex Networks

Yingnan Cong, Yufei Hou, Jiaming Jiang (), Shuangzi Chen and Xiaojing Cai
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Yingnan Cong: Business School, China University of Political Science and Law, Beijing 100088, China
Yufei Hou: Business School, China University of Political Science and Law, Beijing 100088, China
Jiaming Jiang: Center for Artificial Intelligence and Mathematical Data Science, Okayama University, Okayama 700-8530, Japan
Shuangzi Chen: School of Economics, Hebei University, Baoding 071000, China
Xiaojing Cai: Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Okayama University, Okayama 700-0583, Japan

Energies, 2023, vol. 16, issue 15, 1-17

Abstract: As an integral part of economic trade, energy trade is crucial to international dynamics and national interests. In this study, an international energy trade network is constructed by abstracting countries as nodes and representing energy trade relations as edges. A variety of indicators are designed in terms of networks, nodes, bilaterals, and communities to analyze the temporal and spatial evolution of the global energy trade network from 2001 to 2020. The results indicate that network density and strength have been steadily increasing since the beginning of the 21st century. It is observed that the position of the United States as the core of the international energy market is being impacted by emerging developing countries, thus affecting the existing trade balance based on topological analysis. The weighted analysis of bilateral relations demonstrates that emerging countries such as China, Brazil, and Saudi Arabia are pursuing closer cooperation. The community analysis reveals that an increasing number of countries possess strong energy trade capabilities, resulting in a corresponding increase in energy trade volumes.

Keywords: energy trade; complex networks; topology; evolutionary properties (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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