Applications of complex networks on analysis of world trade network

Abstract

We consider the wealth and the money flow of the world trade data. We analyze the world trade data from year 1948 to 2000 which include the total amounts of the import and export for every country per year. We apply the analyzing methods of the complex networks to the world trade network. We define the wealth as the gross domestic products (GDP) of each country. We defined the backbone network of the world trade network. We generate the backbone network keeping the link with the largest wealth flowing out each country by the import and deleting all remaining links. We observed that the wealth was transferred from the poorer countries to the wealthier countries. We found the asymmetry of the world trade flow by the disparity of the networks. From the backbone network of the world trade we can identify the regional economic connections and wealth flow among the countries. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.