Dynamics and evolution of the international trade network

Abstract

This paper studies how the distributions of the most important network statistics measuring connectivity, assortativity, clustering and centrality in the international-trade network have co-evolved over time. We show that all node statistic distributions and their correlation structure have remained surprisingly stable in the last 20 years - and are likely to do so in the future. Conversely, the distribution of (positive) link weights is slowly moving from a log-normal density towards a power law. © 2009 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.