2012/17 | LEM Working Paper Series | ||||||||||||||||
The International Trade Network in Space and Time |
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Angela Abbate, Luca De Benedictis, Giorgio Fagiolo, Lucia Tajoli |
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Keywords | |||||||||||||||||
International Trade, Network Analysis, Distance
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JEL Classifications | |||||||||||||||||
C02, F10, F14
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Abstract | |||||||||||||||||
This paper studies how the structure of the International Trade
Network (ITN) changes in geographical space and along time. We employ
geographical distance between countries in the world to filter the
links in the ITN, building a sequence of sub-networks, each one
featuring trade links occurring at similar distance. We then test if
the topological properties of ITN subnetworks change as distance
increases. We find that distance strongly impacts, in non-linear ways,
the topology of the ITN. We show that the ITN is disassortative at
long distances while it is assortative at short ones. Similarly, the
main determinant of the overall high ITN clustering level are
triangular trade triples between geographically close countries. This
means that trade partnership choices are differentiated over different
distance ranges. Such evidence robustly arises over time and after one
controls for the economic size and income of trading partners.
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