Search

This paper applies complex networks techniques to the study of world trade, with a focus on imperfect competition and development literature. The analysis uses a database of 4657 HS products and 183 countries to measure world market concentration by companies’ country of origin from 2007 to 2017. The empirical findings corroborate some of structuralist and development economists’ claims, namely: countries with high-income per capita focus on producing and exporting manufactured and complex goods in more concentrated markets, whereas countries with low-income per capita specialize in producing and exporting non-complex commodities in less concentrated markets

O objetivo principal desse trabalho é a aplicação de técnicas de redes complexas para o estudo do comércio mundial, com foco específico na investigação das ideias cepalinas e estruturalistas. Um objetivo secundário do trabalho é ilustrar o potencial de utilização das abordagens da nova ciência das redes complexas em economia, no que vem sendo mais recentemente conhecido como uma agenda de pesquisa de econofísica. Trabalhamos com um banco de dados com 4898 produtos do sistema HS de 6 dígitos e 236 países Os resultados empíricos baseados em metodologias computacionais para análise das redes aqui reportados apontam na direção do que diziam os economistas estruturalistas; países de renda per capita elevada se concentram na produção e exportação de bens manufaturados e complexos em mercados mais concentrados, países de renda per capita baixa se concentram na produção e exportação de commodities não complexas. The main purpose of this paper is to apply complex network techniques to the study of world trade, with a specific focus on the investigation of structuralist ideas. A secondary objective is to illustrate the potentialities of the use of the new science of complex networks in economics, in what has been recently referred to as an econophysics research agenda. We work with a databse with 4898 and 6 digit HS system products and 236 countries. The empirical results based on network analysis and computational methods reported here point in the direction of what structuralists used to argue; countries with higher income per capita concentrate in producing and exporting manufactured and complex goods at more concentrated markets; countries with lower income per capita specialize in producing and exporting non-complex commodities.

The main purpose of this paper is to apply big-data and scale-free complex network techniques to the study of world trade, with a specific focus on the investigation of ECLA and structuralist ideas. A secondary objective is to illustrate the potentialities of the use of the new science of complex networks in economics, in what has been recently referred to as an econophysics research agenda. We work with a trade network of 101 countries and 762 products (SITC-4) which generated 1,756,224 trade links in 2013. The empirical results based on network analysis and computational methods reported here point in the direction of what ECLA economists used to argue; countries with higher income per capita concentrate in producing and exporting manufactured and complex goods at the center of the trade network; countries with lower income per capita specialize in producing and exporting non-complex commodities at the network’s periphery.