Trade Costs in the First Wave of Globalization / David S. Jacks, Christopher M. Meissner, Dennis Novy.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Jacks, David S.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Meissner, Christopher M.

Novy, Dennis.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w12602.

NBER working paper series no. w12602

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2006.

Summary:

What drives globalization today and in the past? We employ a new micro-founded measure of bilateral trade costs based on a standard model of trade in differentiated goods to address this question. These trade costs gauge the difference between observed bilateral trade and frictionless trade. They comprise tariffs, transportation costs and all other factors that impede international trade but which are inherently difficult to observe. Trade costs fell on average by ten to fifteen percent between 1870 and 1913. We also use this measure to decompose the growth of global trade over that period and find that roughly 44 percent of the global trade boom can be explained by reductions in trade costs; the remaining 56 percent is attributable to economic expansion.

Notes:

Print version record

October 2006.