The puzzling persistence of the distance effect on bilateral trade

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Disdier, Anne-Celia; Head, Keith
• 署名单位: University of British Columbia
• 刊物名称: REVIEW OF ECONOMICS AND STATISTICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0034-6535
• DOI: 10.1162/rest.90.1.37
• 发表日期: 2008-02
• 页码: 37-48
• 关键词: metaanalysis; wage; geography; gravity

摘要

One of the best-established empirical results in international economics is that bilateral trade decreases with distance. Although well known, this result has not been systematically analyzed before. We examine 1,467 distance effects estimated in 103 papers. Information collected on each estimate allows us to test hypotheses about the causes of variation in the estimates. Our most interesting finding is that the estimated negative impact of distance on trade rose around the middle of the century and has remained persistently high since then. This result holds even after controlling for many important differences in samples and methods.