Tools of the theory of critical phenomena, namely the scaling analysis and universality, are argued to be applicable to large complex web-like network structures. Using a detailed analysis of the real data of the International Trade Network we argue
that the scaled link weight distribution has an approximate log-normal distribution which remains robust over a period of 53 years. Another universal feature is observed in the power-law growth of the trade strength with gross domestic product, the exponent being similar for all countries. Using the rich-club coefficient measure of the weighted networks it has been shown that the size of the rich-club controlling half of the worlds trade is actually shrinking. While the gravity law is known to describe well the social interactions in the static networks of population migration, international trade, etc, here for the first time we studied a non-conservative dynamical model based on the gravity law which excellently reproduced many empirical features of the ITN.
Bilateral trade relationships in the international level between pairs of countries in the world give rise to the notion of the International Trade Network (ITN). This network has attracted the attention of network researchers as it serves as an exce
llent example of the weighted networks, the link weight being defined as a measure of the volume of trade between two countries. In this paper we analyzed the international trade data for 53 years and studied in detail the variations of different network related quantities associated with the ITN. Our observation is that the ITN has also a scale invariant structure like many other real-world networks.
