Functional Trade Patterns in the International Photovoltaic Trade

Abstract

International PV trade is an emerging but prosperous market, which contains high uncertainty and complexity. Functional trade patterns are the basic structural blocks that better contribute to the evolution trend of global PV trade. In this paper, we aim at identifying functional trade patterns in the international photovoltaic trade with trade interpretations. Based on the trade data of PV commodities from 2007 to 2016, complex networks with countries as nodes and trade flows as links are modeled. Motifs and the ones with statistical significance are respectively measured to know the essence of local PV trade patterns. Further, countries’ participations in motifs are counted to measure their local trade roles. We find that, 6 types of local trade patterns are the typical functional ones for the international PV trade. At the same time, functional trade patterns help to reveal evolving trend of countries’ roles in local PV trade patterns. This work is essential for policy makers and researchers to understand the essence of global PV trade.