Analysis and Models of Bilateral Investment Treaties using a Social Networks Approach

SABÁN, DANIELA; BONOMO, FLAVIA; STIER-MOSES, NICOLÁS

PHYSICA A - STATISTICAL AND THEORETICAL PHYSICS

Elsevier

Año: 2010 vol. 389 p. 3661 - 3673

0378-4371

Bilateral investment treaties (BITs) are agreements between two countries for the reciprocal encouragement, promotion and protection of investments in each other´s territories by companies based in either country. Germany and Pakistan the first BIT in 1959 and, since then, BITs are one of the most popular and widespread form of international agreement. In this work we study the proliferation of BITs using a social networks approach. We propose a network growth model that replicates the empirical topological characteristics of the BIT network.