Article “Another Reason Trump Should Like Free Trade” based on results from CSH research

Research based on CSH’s Peter Klimek and Stefan Thurner’s study examines the structure of international trade linkages

In an article on BloombergView Marc Buchanan explains that free trade increases the resilience of the global supply chains using results from the study “Systemic trade risk of critical resources” by CSH’s Peter Klimek and Stefan Thurner as well as IIASA’s Michael Obersteiner. They found “that the structure of international trade linkages can similarly have a huge influence on stability of resource flows through the global economy”, Buchanan summarizes.

Klimek, Obersteiner, and Thurner showed that supply risk, scarcity, and price volatility of non-fuel mineral resources are intricately connected with the structure of the worldwide trade networks spanned by these resources. 

At the globe level, they demonstrated that the scarcity of a resource is closely related to the susceptibility of the trade network with respect to cascading shocks. At the regional level, they found that, to some extent, region-specific price volatility and supply risk can be understood by centrality measures that capture systemic trade risk. The resources associated with the highest systemic trade risk indicators are often those that are produced as by-products of major metals. The researchers identified significant strategic shortcomings in the management of systemic trade risk, in particular in the European Union.

Please find the article HERE.