The Impact of Trade Facilitation on the Networks of Value-Added Trade--Based on Social Network Analysis

This study uses the social network analysis to construct the value-added trade networks of 42 countries from 2008 to 2014 and studies the impact of trade facilitation on the value-added trade networks from different perspectives. At the macro level, trade facilitation contributes to the increase of the density of value-added trade networks. At the micro level, trade facilitation of a country significantly promotes the country's degree centrality, betweenness centrality and closeness centrality in the trade networks. At the meso level, the impact of trade facilitation on countries in different community is different, with the impact on European Community greater than on Asia Pacific Community. Our results highlight the important role of trade facilitation in promoting a country's influence in the trade networks and sustaining the stability of the world trade.