Critical minerals and industrial policy: a network-based approach to supply chain risk

Policy debates on ‘critical minerals’ have multiplied faster than our empirical tools for identifying which products are system-critical. Most existing lists are expert-driven and static; they say little about how upstream raw materials and downstream technologies are knit together in global production networks, or about the asymmetric roles of large demand and supply hubs. This paper proposes a network index of criticality (NIC), built from trade data and a directed production network, that integrates (i) a product’s share in world trade, (ii) exporter and importer concentration, and (iii) its position in a product-input network. Criticality here refers to systemic exposure encoded in tradeable production networks; it is not a welfare metric and it is not a measure of physical scarcity. We show that NIC aligns with revealed policy attention in official critical-mineral lists. We then construct three families of counterfactuals that remove China, the United States, or the European Union from trade on either the export (supply) or import (demand) side. These scenarios yield product-level diagnostics of hub dependence and map directly to policy instrument choice (e.g. recycling standards, permitting and processing investment, strategic reserves, or trusted-partner agreements).