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Global flow of commodity, money, people, and knowledge

The phenomenon of globalization can simultaneously reduce international economic inequality (e.g., in the case of emerging countries) and worsen domestic economic inequality (e.g., increase of relative poverty in a several advanced countries). How can we solve this trade-off between international and domestic inequalities? On the other hand, it is highly desirable to avoid the reduction of biological and cultural diversity due to globalization. What can we do to promote the sustainable evolution and preservation of local diversities?

Network analysis on global interdependence caused by the flows of commodity, money, people, and knowledge is indispensable in order to acquire different perspectives on globalization and to clarify its effects on isolated communities, which are most vulnerable in terms of equality and diversity. Consequently, the aim of this special issue is to collect a series of pioneering works in this interdisciplinary field, at the edge of natural and social sciences, to provide a landscape of research progresses and potentials in evidence-based policy making.

Papers of a broad nature – as per the topic to be tackled – on various aspects of global flow of commodity, money, people, and knowledge are to be considered as possible contributions for this special issue.

Lead guest editor
Yuichi Ikeda, ikeda.yuichi.2w@kyoto-u.ac.jp
Kyoto University, Japan

Guest editors
Guido Caldarelli, guido.caldarelli@imtlucca.it
IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca, Italy

Maximilian Schich, Maximilian.Schich@utdallas.edu
University of Texas at Dallas, USA

Teruyoshi Kobayashi, kobayashi@econ.kobe-u.ac.jp
Kobe University, Japan

Irena Vodenska, vodenska@bu.edu
Boston University, USA

For more information, get in touch with the editors.



  1. Evidence from 184 countries over the span of 25 years is gathered and analyzed to understand North–North, South–South, and North–South international migration flows. Conceptually, the analysis borrows from net...

    Authors: Diego F. Leal and Nicolas L. Harder
    Citation: Applied Network Science 2021 6:8
    Content type: Research Published on:

  3. This study models cross-national attitudes towards immigrants in East and Southeast Asia as a signed and weighted bipartite network of countries and evaluative reactions to a variety of political issues, or de...

    Authors: Rachael Kei Kawasaki and Yuichi Ikeda
    Citation: Applied Network Science 2020 5:85
    Content type: Research Published on:

  4. Social connections that reach distant places are advantageous for individuals, firms and cities, providing access to new skills and knowledge. However, systematic evidence on how firms build global knowledge a...

    Authors: László Lőrincz, Guilherme Kenji Chihaya, Anikó Hannák, Dávid Takács, Balázs Lengyel and Rikard Eriksson
    Citation: Applied Network Science 2020 5:78
    Content type: Research Published on:

  5. As illustrated by the 2008 global financial crisis, the financial distress of one country can trigger financial distress in other countries. We examine the problem of identifying such “systemically important” ...

    Authors: R. Maria del Rio-Chanona, Yevgeniya Korniyenko, Manasa Patnam and Mason A. Porter
    Citation: Applied Network Science 2020 5:74
    Content type: Research Published on:

  6. We aim to explore the connections between structural network inequalities and bank’s customer spending behaviours, within an entire national ecosystem made of natural persons (i.e., an individual human being) ...

    Authors: Alfonso Semeraro, Marcella Tambuscio, Silvia Ronchiadin, Laura Li Puma and Giancarlo Ruffo
    Citation: Applied Network Science 2020 5:76
    Content type: Research Published on:

  7. Massive migrations have become increasingly prevalent over the last decades. A recent example is the Venezuelan migration crisis across South America, which particularly affects neighboring countries like Colo...

    Authors: Isabella Loaiza Saa, Matej Novak, Alfredo J. Morales and Alex Pentland
    Citation: Applied Network Science 2020 5:70
    Content type: Research Published on:

  8. We present a model of worldwide crisis contagion based on the Google matrix analysis of the world trade network obtained from the UN Comtrade database. The fraction of bankrupted countries exhibits an on-off phas...

    Authors: Célestin Coquidé, José Lages and Dima L. Shepelyansky
    Citation: Applied Network Science 2020 5:67
    Content type: Research Published on:

  9. The Erasmus Program (EuRopean community Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Students), the most important student exchange program in the world, financed by the European Union and started in 1987, is ...

    Authors: Luca De Benedictis and Silvia Leoni
    Citation: Applied Network Science 2020 5:64
    Content type: Research Published on: