Social network analysis as a tool for the analysis of international trade of wood and non-wood forest products

Countries are almost exclusively seen as the primary unit of analysis in the study of international trade; and analysis of trade in wood and non-wood forest products is no exception to that rule. This paper uses the relationship among countries as the primary unit of analysis and introduces different procedures of social network analysis, where the goal is to demonstrate their applicability to the study of international trade of forest products. Compared to statistical analysis, additional benefit of social network analysis is the fact that the assumption of independence of observations does not hold true; and thus enables a more thorough insight into the structure of the international trade network. Data on international trade of chemical wood pulp, truffles, and aggregate forest products in the 1988–2006 period is used to demonstrate the applicability of selected network indices as descriptors of economic flows among countries. The analysis covers topics of network visualization, characteristics of the network, grouping of countries, their individual positions and modelling of international trade that includes endogenous effects such as reciprocity, and exogenous effects such as forest certification and contribution of forestry to the gross domestic product. Results show that many procedures of social network analysis can be used in the field of international trade of forest products, but that great care is needed in their contextual interpretation. Prominent topics of application are the structural trends and impact of different policies, such as the EU Timber Regulation on international trade of wood-based products.