Showing 1 - 10 of 196
Developing countries pay substantially higher transportation costs than developed nations, which leads to less trade and perhaps lower incomes. This paper investigates price discrimination in the shipping industry and the role it plays in determining transportation costs. In the presence of...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10012777612
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...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10012759104
This paper develops and estimates a model of indivisibilities in shipping and economies of scale in consolidation. It uses highly detailed data on imports for which it is possible to observe the contents of individual containers. In the model, a firm is able to adapt to indivisibility...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10012920901
This paper exploits a three-dimensional panel data set of prices on 27 traded goods, over 88 quarters, across 96 cities in the U.S. and Japan. We show that a simple average of good-level real exchange rates tracks the nominal exchange rate well, suggesting strong evidence of sticky prices....
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10013225810
Recent literature has emphasized the importance of transport costs and infrastructure in explaining trade, access to markets, and increases in per capita income. For most Latin American countries, transport costs are a greater barrier to U.S. markets than import tariffs. We investigate the...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10013233046
The standard source for pre-WWII global freight rate trends is the Isserlis British tramp shipping index. We think it is flawed, and that its sources offer vastly more information than the Isserlis aggregate contains. The new data confirm the precipitous decline in nominal freight rates before...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10013292457
We study the returns to owning dry bulk cargo ships. Ship earnings exhibit a high degree of mean reversion, driven by industry participants' competitive investment responses to shifts in demand. Ship prices are far too volatile given the mean reversion in earnings. We show that high current ship...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10013078599
Collusion is widely condemned for its negative effects on consumer welfare and market efficiency. In this paper, I show that collusion may also in some cases facilitate the creation of unexpected new sources of value. I bring this possibility into focus through the lens of a historical episode...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10012862849
Political and economic transition is often blamed for Russia's 40% surge in deaths between 1990 and 1994. Highlighting … the campaign's end explains a large share of the mortality crisis - implying that Russia's transition to capitalism and …
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10013096856
countries, to Russia's earlier history, and to Russia's income distribution today? Careful weighing of an eclectic data set … of European Russia. In 1904, on the eve of military defeat and the 1905 Revolution, Russian income inequality was … States, and Russia itself. We also note how the interplay of some distinctive fiscal and relative-price features of Imperial …
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10013100677