Social Network Perspective on Trade in Value Added: Focused on the Logistics Industry Open Access

This paper examines the network dynamics of the cross-border trades utilizing Social Network Analysis (SNA) based on data obtained from the WTO-OECD Trade in Value Added database from 2000-2011. The main results of this paper are as follows: regarding the top 10 in-degree centrality industries, industries in China, Germany, and the U.S. have emerged as the largest importers of foreign value added, implying that the global production network is dominated by two different types of industries. The first type includes processing and assembling functions in China and Germany. The other type of industry involves foreign value added largely for domestic final demand in the U.S. Secondly, there are also two types of brokerage roles. U.S. industries are operating in a liaison role, while Chinese and German industries are mostly operating as coordinator or gatekeeper. Thirdly, manufacturing industries in China and Germany which have emerged as higher in-degree centrality incur a large portion of their value added from the logistics industry. This suggests that those leading industries with the highest characteristics of hubness in the global production network cannot sustain their network status without efficient utilization of the logistics industry.