  This paper studies the topological properties of the World Trade Web (WTW)
and its evolution over time by employing a weighted network analysis. We show
that the WTW, viewed as a weighted network, displays statistical features that
are very different from those obtained by using a traditional binary-network
approach. In particular, we find that: (i) the majority of existing links are
associated to weak trade relationships; (ii) the weighted WTW is only weakly
disassortative; (iii) countries holding more intense trade relationships are
more clustered.
