Suchergebnisse

"This paper explores the means by which warfare influences domestic commodity markets. It is argued that England during the French Wars provides an ideal testing ground. Four categories of explanatory variables are taken as likely sources of documented changes in English commodity price dis-integration during this period: weather, trade, policy, and wartime events. Empirically, increases in price dispersion are related to all of the above categories. However, the primary means identified by which warfare influenced domestic commodity market integration was through international trade linkages and the arrival of news regarding wartime events"--National Bureau of Economic Research web site

"What is the role of transport improvements in globalization? We argue that the nineteenth century is the ideal testing ground for this question: freight rates fell on average by 50% while global trade increased 400% from 1870 to 1913. We estimate the first indices of bilateral freight rates for the period and directly incorporate these into a standard gravity model. We also take the endogeneity of bilateral trade and freight rates seriously and propose an instrumental variables approach. The results are striking as we find no evidence that the maritime transport revolution was the primary driver of the late nineteenth century global trade boom. Rather, the most powerful forces driving the boom were those of income growth and convergence"--National Bureau of Economic Research web site

"We use a new measure of total trade costs at the bilateral country level to examine the change in international trade integration between 1870 and 1913. Trade costs are lowest amongst the most developed countries and highest in the peripheral and poor countries. On average, our measure declined by roughly ten percent during the period declining most slowly in the richest countries. Core-periphery dyads saw the fastest declines. We sort the determinants of trade costs into four main categories: geographic, political, transportation/communications and institutional/cultural. We find that all of these factors play a role in explaining the variation in the data. Transportation costs and other factors related to proximity seem to explain the largest fraction of the variance. Membership in the British Empire and a shared language are also of great importance. Tariffs, and increased exchange rate regime coordination play a strong role too. Finally we find that reductions in trade costs explain roughly 40 percent of the global trade boom. Economic expansion accounts for the rest"--National Bureau of Economic Research web site