Estimating the effects of the container revolution on world trade

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Bernhofen, Daniel M.; El -Sahli, Zouheir; Kneller, Richard
• 署名单位: American University; Leibniz Association; Ifo Institut; Lund University; University of Nottingham
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-1996
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jinteco.2015.09.001
• 发表日期: 2016
• 页码: 36-50
• 关键词: Containerization; 20th century global transportation infrastructure; Growth of world trade

摘要

Many historical accounts have asserted that containerization triggered complementary technological and organizational changes that revolutionized global freight transport. We are the first to suggest an identification strategy for estimating the effects of the container revolution on world trade. Our empirical strategy exploits time and cross-sectional variation in countries' first adoption of container facilities and combines it with product-level variation in containerizability and container usage. Applying our container variables on a large panel of product level trade flows for the period 1962-1990, our estimates suggest economically large concurrent and cumulative effects of containerization and lend support for the view of containerization being a driver of 20th century economic globalization. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.