Unfolding the complexity of the global value chain: Strengths and entropy in the single-layer, multiplex, and multi-layer international trade networks

Abstract

The worldwide trade network has been widely studied through different data sets and network representations with a view to better understanding interactions among countries and products. Here we investigate international trade through the lenses of the single-layer, multiplex, and multi-layer networks. We discuss differences among the three network frameworks in terms of their relative advantages in capturing salient topological features of trade. We draw on the World Input-Output Database to build the three networks. We then uncover sources of heterogeneity in the way strength is allocated among countries and transactions by computing the strength distribution and entropy in each network. Additionally, we trace how entropy evolved, and show how the observed peaks can be associated with the onset of the global economic downturn. Findings suggest how more complex representations of trade, such as the multi-layer network, enable us to disambiguate the distinct roles of intra- and cross-industry transactions in driving the evolution of entropy at a more aggregate level. We discuss our results and the implications of our comparative analysis of networks for research on international trade and other empirical domains across the natural and social sciences.

arXiv commentAccepted for publication in Entropy. 12 pages and 5 figures

References in corpus (18)

• The Building Blocks of Economic Complexity
• Multilayer Networks
• The Product Space Conditions the Development of Nations
• Structural measures for multiplex networks
• Topology of the World Trade Web
• Structure and Evolution of the World Trade Network
• Fitness-dependent topological properties of the World Trade Web
• Identifying the Community Structure of the International-Trade Multi Network
• A network analysis of countries' export flows: firm grounds for the building blocks of the economy
• Early-warning signals of topological collapse in interbank networks
• Randomizing bipartite networks: the case of the World Trade Web
• Structure and Response in the World Trade Network
• The hidden geometry of weighted complex networks
• Reconstructing the world trade multiplex: the role of intensive and extensive biases
• Detecting early signs of the 2007-2008 crisis in the world trade
• Strength of weak layers in cascading failures on multiplex networks: case of the international trade network
• The nested structural organization of the worldwide trade multi-layer network
• The World-Trade Web: Topological Properties, Dynamics, and Evolution

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Reconstructing commuters network using machine learning and urban indicators
• Multilayer Network Science: from Cells to Societies
• The Multilayer Structure of Corporate Networks
• Clustering coefficients as measures of the complex interactions in a directed weighted multilayer network
• Modularity in Multilayer Networks using Redundancy-based Resolution and Projection-based Inter-Layer Coupling