Complexity and synchronization of the World trade Web

The complex topology of a network determines its dynamics. The world economy is now internationally connected through a globalization process of trading. The complex dynamical behaviors of the world economy have been studied as a dynamical system, but there does not seem to be any consideration of the effect of dynamics on the world trade network. In this paper, we attempt such a study and present the scale-free features of the degree distribution, as well as wealth and resource distributions on the World Trade Web (WTW). Moreover, the synchronization phenomenon of economic cycles on the WTW due to its scale-free features is discussed in detail. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.