Global textile and apparel value-added exports network structure and China’s network position

ABSTRACT

By taking the textile and apparel value-added exports data of 43 economies as the research sample, the social network analysis method is used to measure the global textile and apparel value-added exports network structure. The results show that the world textile and apparel value-added trade network is uneven, China has the widest range of trading partners, and the breadth of trading partners is growing over time. Germany and Italy have a stronger ability to control trade among other economies, and China’s ability to control trade with other economies is generally average, but the gap between China and Germany or Italy has narrowed significantly. China’s core degree has risen sharply. The trade networks are concentrated in a small number of core zone countries. The small group located in China is characterized by contraction.

KEYWORDS:

• Value-added exports
• textile and apparel
• exports network structure
• China
• social network analysis

JEL CLASSIFICATION:

• F10
• F14
• F23

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

¹ Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Brazil, Canada, Switzerland, China, Cyprus, Czech, Germany, Denmark, Spain, Estonia, Finland, France, UK, Greece, Croatia, Hungary, Indonesia, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Latvia, Mexico, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Turkey, China Taiwan, USA.

² The most recent year of data in this value-added database is only up to 2014.

³ The degree centrality is categorized into point-out degree and point-in degree, and since this paper only studies the export, only the values of point-out degree are listed in Table 1.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Social Science Foundation of China [Project No. 19BGJ086]