Does the internet defy the law of gravity?

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Blum, Bernardo S.; Goldfarb, Avi
• 署名单位: University of Toronto
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-1996
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jinteco.2005.10.002
• 发表日期: 2006
• 页码: 384-405
• 关键词: Gravity model; international trade; Trade costs; internet; digital goods

摘要

We show that gravity holds in the case of digital goods consumed over the Internet that have no trading costs. Therefore trade costs cannot fully account for the effects of distance on trade. In particular, we show that Americans are more likely to visit websites from nearby countries, even controlling for language, income, immigrant stock, etc. Furthermore, we show that this effect only holds for taste-dependent digital products, such as music, games, and pornography. For these, a 1% increase in physical distance reduces website visits by 3.25%. For non-taste-dependent products, such as software, distance has no statistical effect. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.