Rare earth trade dependence network structure and its impact on trade prices: An industry chain perspective

Abstract

Rare earth is an important raw material for military manufacturing, artificial intelligence, and the new energy industry, relating to national security and technological development. The article constructs a rare earth trade dependence network to analyze the overall rare earth trade characteristics, trade associations evolution, and the characteristics of world major economies from 2008 to 2022 and explores the impact of the network characteristics on prices using panel regression. The study found that: (1) the rare earth trade dependence network shows an expanding trend, and the trade is more direct; (2) the trade community features, China occupies an important position in the up and middle stream of the industrial chain, and the United States maintains a leading position in the downstream; (3) there are obvious differences in the degree of dependence of the central countries, and their roles are different in each chain segment; (4) the structural features of the network affect the trade price of rare earths, and there are differences in the key influences in each chain segment. Based on the above findings, the article puts forward corresponding policy suggestions.