This paper studies the statistical properties of the web of import-export relationships among world countries using a weighted-network approach. We analyze how the distributions of the most important network statistics measuring connectivity, assortativity, clustering and centrality have...

This note revisits the role of migrant social networks as determinants of bilateral-migration flows. We do so using a new database that covers about 190 world countries and features more accurate estimates of bilateral flows than those employed so far. Our battery of gravity- model exercises...

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...

This paper employs a weighted network approach to study the empirical properties of the web of trade relationships among world countries, and its evolution over time. We show that most countries are characterized by weak trade links; yet, there exists a group of countries featuring a large...

In economic and financial networks, the strength (total value of the connections) of a given node has always an important economic meaning, such as the size of supply and demand, import and export, or financial exposure. Constructing null models of networks matching the observed strengths of all...

This paper explores the statistical properties of household consumption-expenditure budget share distributions – defined as the share of household total expenditure spent for purchasing a specific category of commodities – for a large sample of Italian households in the period 1989–2004....

We study equilibrium selection in coordination games played by a population of agents whose size increases over time. We assume that, in each time period, a new player enters the economy, observes current strategy shares and irreversibly chooses a strategy on the basis of expected payoffs. We...