East Asia and Solar Energy Trade Network Patterns

The extent to which core-periphery hierarchical trade patterns have significantly changed with the emergence of Asia remains debated. This paper addresses the debate by examining the spatial patterns and mobility of Asian countries in global solar energy trade. Based on network analysis from 1990 to 2013, it shows that Japan, Singapore, and Malaysia emerged as core countries as early as 1990. The Asian core expanded to six countries by 2013, including Japan, South Korea, China, and Singapore. China in particular moved steeply upward in the spatial hierarchy. The United States also experienced considerable vertical mobility, but Germany is the most stable core. The rise of East and Southeast Asia, however, did not decrease economic inequality internationally. Rather, new patterns of network inequality may be observed both within Asia and globally. Less developed Southeast and South Asia—Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Pakistan—experienced no or marginal mobility.