Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/30665 
Year of Publication: 
2009
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 2767
Publisher: 
Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo), Munich
Abstract: 
What has driven trade booms and trade busts in the past and present? We derive a micro-founded measure of trade frictions from leading trade theories and use it to gauge the importance of bilateral trade costs in determining international trade flows. We construct a new balanced sample of bilateral trade flows for 130 country pairs across the Americas, Asia, Europe, and Oceania for the period from 1870 to 2000 and demonstrate an overriding role for declining trade costs in the pre-World War I trade boom. In contrast, for the post-World War II trade boom we identify changes in output as the dominant force. Finally, the entirety of the interwar trade bust is explained by increases in trade costs.
JEL: 
F10
F15
N10
N70
Document Type: 
Working Paper
Appears in Collections:

Files in This Item:
File
Size
812.24 kB





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.