Ecological analysis of world trade

Leonardo Ermann and Dima Shepelyansky ()
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Leonardo Ermann: TANDAR - Departamento de Fisica Teorica - CAC - Centro Atómico Constituyentes - CNEA - Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica [ARGENTINA], ICQ - Cohérence Quantique (LPT) - LPT - Laboratoire de Physique Théorique - IRSAMC - Institut de Recherche sur les Systèmes Atomiques et Moléculaires Complexes - UT3 - Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier - UT - Université de Toulouse - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Dima Shepelyansky: ICQ - Cohérence Quantique (LPT) - LPT - Laboratoire de Physique Théorique - IRSAMC - Institut de Recherche sur les Systèmes Atomiques et Moléculaires Complexes - UT3 - Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier - UT - Université de Toulouse - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

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Abstract: Ecological systems have a high level of complexity combined with stability and rich biodiversity. Recently, the analysis of their properties and evolution has been pushed forward on a basis of concept of mutualistic networks that provides a detailed understanding of their features being linked to a high nestedness of these networks. It was shown that the nestedness architecture of mutualistic networks of plants and their pollinators minimizes competition and increases biodiversity. Here, using the United Nations COMTRADE database for years 1962 - 2009, we show that a similar ecological analysis gives a valuable description of the world trade. In fact the countries and trade products are analogous to plants and pollinators, and the whole trade network is characterized by a low nestedness temperature which is typical for the ecological networks. This approach provides new mutualistic features of the world trade highlighting new significance of countries and trade products for the world trade.

Keywords: mutualistic networks; nestedness; world trade network; complex networks (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012-11-21
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Published in Physics Letters A, 2012, 377, pp.250. ⟨10.1016/j.physleta.2012.10.056⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-00661036

DOI: 10.1016/j.physleta.2012.10.056

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