In this paper, we study trade imbalances between world countries in the period 1960–2011 using a complex-network approach. We show that trade imbalances in absolute value are characterized by a hierarchical arrangement wherein a few developed economies display high clustering and carry an...

We investigate whether the gravity model (GM) can explain the statistical properties of the International Trade Network (ITN). We fit data on trade flows with a GM using alternative estimation techniques and we build GM-based predictions for the weighted topological properties of the ITN, which...