The scope for analysis of world trade through network theory

The paper sets out to survey a recent investigation of the world trade system based on graph theory and complex network analysis. It presents several complex network representations of the trade system that are suitable for analysis of its intrinsic properties, and its structural and functional evolution. The authors give an overview of some graph-based concepts applicable to examining the system and set about demonstrating the usage of some network-analysis methods for extracting information from the data set of international trade. Reprinted by permission of Akadémiai Kiadó