The World Is Not Yet Flat: Transport Costs Matter!

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Behrens, Kristian; Brown, W. Mark; Bougna, Theophile
• 署名单位: University of Quebec; University of Quebec Montreal; HSE University (National Research University Higher School of Economics); Statistics Canada; The World Bank
• 刊物名称: REVIEW OF ECONOMICS AND STATISTICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0034-6535
• DOI: 10.1162/rest_a_00729
• 发表日期: 2018-07
• 页码: 712-724
• 关键词: interstate highway system; freight rates; urban-growth; TRADE; geography; cities; suburbanization; canada; roads

摘要

Using microlevel commodity flow data and microgeographic plant-level data, we construct industry-specific ad valorem trucking rate series and measures of geographic concentration to provide evidence on the relationship between transport costs and agglomeration. We find that low-transport-cost industries display significantly more geographic concentration in the cross-sectional dimension and that falling transport costs agglomerate industries in the panel dimension. The effects are large: the fall in trucking rates between 1992 and 2008 implied a 20% increase in geographic concentration on average, all else equal.