Figure 3

Application of our method to the binary, undirected, bipartite World Trade Web in the year 1963 (left column) and 2000 (right column). Panels report VS d_c (a, b) and VS u_p (c, d). Observed points are in blue; the black, solid curves are CM-induced ensemble averages; the red, solid lines are RG-induced ensemble averages; the gray, dashed curves indicate the ±1 standard deviation region; the gray, dash-dotted curves indicate the ±2 standard deviations region. Colored areas represent the ensemble density of expected points (sampling 5000 matrices). Although the BiCM captures the disassortative trend of the WTW, its striking similarity with the BiRG predictions proves that the explanatory power of the degree sequence is far more limited in the bipartite representation than in the monopartite one²⁶.