In recent times economists have increasingly used tools borrowed from both social and physical sciences in order to represent and analyze trade flows as a network of bilateral relatioships between pairs of countries. This allows to visualize the structure of the system itself and emphasize the relevance of connections beyond individual countries' characteristics.

The application of network analysis to international trade can complement other empirical analyses of trade which instead put countries' characteristics at the forefront of the analysis.

In 2009, we have created a "network" of Italian scholars interested in trade networks and started regular workshops to exchange ideas, views and results.

This webpage serves as a focal point for the activity of the group and aims at disseminating the outcome of individual work and collective discussion.
You can contact us at natit (at) googlegroups.com

Relevant Members' Publications

• Schiavo, S., Reyes, J. and Fagiolo, G., International trade and financial integration: a weighted network approach, (2010), Quantitative Finance, 10(4), 389-399.
• Riccaboni, M., Schiavo, S., Structure and Growth of International Trade, (2010), New Journal of Physics, 12(February 2010), 023003.
• Fagiolo, G., Reyes, J., Schiavo, S., The evolution of the world trade web: a weighted-network analysis, (2009), Journal of Evolutionary Economics, pp. 1-36. Article in Press.
• Fagiolo, G., Reyes, J., Schiavo, S., Dynamics and evolution of the international trade network, (2009), Studies in Computational Intelligence, 207, pp. 1-13.
  
• Fagiolo, G., Reyes, J., Schiavo, S., World-trade web: Topological properties, dynamics, and evolution, (2009), Physical Review E, 79 (3), art. no. 036115.
• Fracasso, A., Schiavo, S., Global imbalances, exchange rates adjustment and the crisis: Implications from network analysis, (2009), Journal of Policy Modeling, 31 (5), pp. 601-619.
• Maggioni, M.A., Uberti, T.E., Knowledge networks across Europe: Which distance matters?, (2009), Annals of Regional Science, 43, pp. 691-720.
• Schweitzer, F., Fagiolo, G., Sornette, D., Vega-Redondo, F., White, D.R., Economic networks: What do we know and what do we need to know?, (2009), Advances in Complex Systems, 12 (4-5), pp. 407-422.
• Schweitzer, F., Fagiolo, G., Sornette, D., Vega-Redondo, F., Vespignani, A., White, D.R., Economic networks: The new challenges, (2009), Science, 325 (5939), pp. 422-425.
• Fagiolo, G., Reyes, J., Schiavo, S., On the topological properties of the world trade web: A weighted network analysis, (2008), Physica A, 387 (15), pp. 3868-3873.
• Reyes, J., Schiavo, S., Fagiolo, G., Assessing the evolution of international economic integration using random walk betweenness centrality: The cases of East Asia and Latin America, (2008), Advances in Complex Systems, 11 (5), pp. 685-702.
• Garlaschelli, D., Di Matteo, T., Aste, T., Caldarelli, G., Loffredo, M.I., Interplay between topology and dynamics in the World Trade Web, (2007), European Physical Journal B, 57 (2), pp. 159-164.
  
• Garlaschelli, D., Loffredo, M.I., Structure and evolution of the world trade network, (2005), Physica A, 355 (1), pp. 138-144.
• Garlaschelli, D., Loffredo, M.I., Fitness-dependent topological properties of the world trade web, (2004), Physical Review Letters, 93 (18), pp. 188701-1-188701-4.

Working Papers

• Barigozzi, M., Fagiolo, G. and Garlaschelli, D. (2009), The Multi-Network of International Trade: A Commodity-Specific Analysis.", arXiv:0908.1879v3 [q-fin.GN]. Also in: LEM Working Paper, 2009/09.
• Fagiolo, G. (2009), The International-Trade Network: Gravity Equations and Topological Properties, arXiv:0908.2086v1 [physics.soc-ph]. Also in: LEM Working Paper, 2009/08.
• Fagiolo, G., Reyes, J. and Schiavo, S. (2008), The World-Trade Web: Topological Properties, Dynamics, and Evolution, arXiv:0807.4433v2 [physics.soc-ph]. Also in: LEM Working Paper, 2008/16.
• Reyes, J., Fagiolo, G. and Schiavo, S. (2008), Using a complex weighted-network approach to assess the evolution of international economic integration: The cases of East Asia and Latin America, LEM Working Paper, 2008/10.
• Fagiolo, G., Reyes, J. and Schiavo, S. (2007), On the Topological Properties of the World Trade Web: A Weighted Network Analysis, arXiv:0708.4359v1 [physics.soc-ph]