Implications of COVID-19 Pandemic on the Global Trade Networks

Abstract

This article measures the trade interconnectedness among countries before and after the COVID-19 outbreak, and forecasts the future direction of trade. Using Trade Network Analysis and Artificial Neural Networks, our findings show that: (1) There is a drastic reduction in trade interconnectedness, connectivity, and density among countries after the COVID-19 outbreak. (2) There is a visible change in the structure of trade-network (3) China’s ‘center’ position in the trade network is not affected by the pandemic. (4) There will be a drastic decline in trade of most of the economies until December 2020.