The rise of China in the international trade network: a community core detection approach

Zhen Zhu (), Federica Cerina, Alessandro Chessa (), Guido Caldarelli () and Massimo Riccaboni ()
Additional contact information
Zhen Zhu: IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca
Federica Cerina: IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca
Alessandro Chessa: IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca
Guido Caldarelli: IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca

No 4/2014, Working Papers from IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca

Abstract: Theory of complex networks proved successful in the description of a variety of static networks ranging from biology to computer and social sciences 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.

Keywords: Complex Networks; International Trade; Community Detection (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F10 F15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 20 pages
Date: 2014-04, Revised 2014-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-int and nep-sea
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (22)

Published in EIC working paper series

Downloads: (external link)
http://eprints.imtlucca.it/2192/1/EIC_WP_4_2014.pdf First version, 2014 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ial:wpaper:4/2014

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Leonardo Mezzina ().