Dynamics and Evolution of the International Trade Network

摘要

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.