Multilayer Analysis of the Global Trade Network
Abstract
Global trade is more than a single network of aggregate flows. Beneath the observable exchange of products among economies lies a complex multilayer structure, formed by thousands of product-specific trade relationships that differ in their similarity, interdependence, and temporal evolution. Using the CEPII's BACI database, which records bilateral product-level trade flows between economies, we represent the global trade network from 1995 to 2024 as a temporal multilayer network, with economies as nodes and directed weighted trade flows as edges. To investigate product-level organisation and cross-layer similarity, temporal structural change, and the structural role of individual economies, we introduce a random-walk-based similarity measure that provides a unified framework for comparing weighted and directed trade layers. Our results show that the global trade network remains relatively stable over short periods but undergoes gradual structural change over longer timescales. We also find that similarity-based product communities only partially align with the official product taxonomy, indicating that products assigned to the same official category do not necessarily exhibit similar trade-network structures. Finally, we show that an economy's structural influence is not always determined by its trade volume. These results highlight the value of multilayer network analysis for revealing patterns in global trade that remain hidden at the aggregate level.
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BibTeX
@misc{li2026multilayer,
title = {{Multilayer Analysis of the Global Trade Network}},
author = {Chenyang Li and Leonardo Brogi and Andrea Civilini and Piero Mazzarisi and Nicola Perra and Vito Latora},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.21614},
eprint = {2609.21614},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.21614},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Multilayer Analysis of the Global Trade Network
AU - Chenyang Li
AU - Leonardo Brogi
AU - Andrea Civilini
AU - Piero Mazzarisi
AU - Nicola Perra
AU - Vito Latora
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/18
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.21614
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.21614
AB - Global trade is more than a single network of aggregate flows. Beneath the observable exchange of products among economies lies a complex multilayer structure, formed by thousands of product-specific trade relationships that differ in their similarity, interdependence, and temporal evolution. Using the CEPII's BACI database, which records bilateral product-level trade flows between economies, we represent the global trade network from 1995 to 2024 as a temporal multilayer network, with economies as nodes and directed weighted trade flows as edges. To investigate product-level organisation and cross-layer similarity, temporal structural change, and the structural role of individual economies, we introduce a random-walk-based similarity measure that provides a unified framework for comparing weighted and directed trade layers. Our results show that the global trade network remains relatively stable over short periods but undergoes gradual structural change over longer timescales. We also find that similarity-based product communities only partially align with the official product taxonomy, indicating that products assigned to the same official category do not necessarily exhibit similar trade-network structures. Finally, we show that an economy's structural influence is not always determined by its trade volume. These results highlight the value of multilayer network analysis for revealing patterns in global trade that remain hidden at the aggregate level.
ER -